Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

83 reviews

emilylott's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, and Confinement

Minor: Body shaming and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bearybooky's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Infertility and Injury/Injury detail

____nique's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I kept seeing this on the Facebook Book Club I joined, and I decided to read it because I hadn't seen any negative reviews. At first, I assumed that this would be a boring and cringey thriller book because the plot reminded me of Hoover's Verity. But it was a good book! Although the plot is a little predictable to me, I still enjoy reading it. I like how the author turned the story into an advocacy piece for ending violence against women and children. Also, its creepiness was balanced; it wasn't overly creepy or disturbing. I also compared Andrew, the villain, to Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones. I also like how fast-paced the book is; if I had continued reading it on the day I downloaded it, I could have finished it in one sitting. However, I'm having second thoughts about reading the sequel books because I'm afraid I'll find the story repetitive and redundant, ruining the story for me. However, I believe Freida McFadden is a good modern thriller writer!! Love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Forced institutionalization

maddie_0930's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death, Murder, Blood, Torture, Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

silverkoshka's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Torture, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Forced institutionalization

frubia56's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you can get past the first third of the book, you’ll absolutely love it. It’s a difficult read in the beginning with how awful Nina is, but the twists in the end explains it all and makes it worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Torture

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Rape, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

penguins_save_lives's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Murder, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Gaslighting, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Death, Torture, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Infertility, and Confinement

jessclarkee's review

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body shaming, Confinement, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Torture, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Mental illness, Violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Murder, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

dezaraemd's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is without a doubt one of the top 3 books I’ve ever read. Possibly number 1. I can’t wait to start the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Minor: Classism, Cursing, Deportation, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, and Alcohol

nyquillll's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I’m sitting here, nodding my head, almost like a physical agreement with myself that I did enjoy this book. I finished it in a day and wow, wow.

There were a couple things I was able to guess correctly from the start:

that the prologue was in the POV of Nina, the wife; that Enzo would end up in a relationship with one of the women; and that Millie would somehow find herself locked in the room at some point

.

Things I enjoyed:

• Freida does a great job, I think, of building out characters in a way that provokes an emotional reaction to them. In most of her stories, I’m able to get into her characters’ heads and really picture what they’re experiencing - which means I’m more invested in how things end. She also has a habit of gently leading you to believe one thing and then pulling back the curtain - et voila!!
• I was trying like crazy to guess what would happen, and I think I got there a couple times from the heavy hints - but Freida also loves dropping red herrings that I fall for
• The complexity of this story to document
  domestic abuse (to the extremes)
  and the toll it takes on the person who stays - how hard it is to escape 
• I know it took halfway through the book for the plot to start plotting, but I think it felt genius, because when Part II hits, you begin to question everything you read and how you interpreted it, and I LOVE this feeling 
• The ending. I do not condone
  murder
  at all, but the comeuppance felt like the story was fully completed. I’m super curious to see where the second books takes off from, now that we’ve been introduced to this new role Millie can play. I’m really glad Freida chose to have
  Nina protect Millie, even if she needed cajoling, because it’s true, Millie didn’t deserve to be set up for this just because she had a prison record
• Just wow - at one point, I literally said
  “I think there’s a plot hole, they never mentioned where the daughter went, she disappeared”
  AND THEN I LEARNED
• The reveal felt like everything. I had to close this book multiple times and just gasp because it felt like a long time coming, but then to finally see how it played out???? Couldn’t have predicted  the twist, even though everything felt like it made sense in the story world, especially the smaller reveals in the last few chapters 
• THE PEANUT BUTTER

Things I didn’t enjoy as much:

• Some of the writing around “foreigners” and accented English - although I think it was played up to reflect the stereotype of rich people being rude? But I was a bit sensitive to this
• Again, comments about
  “I deliberately put on weight so I wouldn’t be sexually desirable”
• How bratty CeCe was - and it was never really fully explained why she acted this way with people who weren’t her mother 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the rest in the series! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Mental illness, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Sexual assault, Classism, and Pregnancy