Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky

13 reviews

frances_frances's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The prose was so sharp and the unnamed narrator was complex and believable. And the way intergenerational trauma was dealt with was interesting. The pacing was a bit uneven for me. The first half really flowed and the second half wasn't as tight. As an aside, I don't think I'm super into coming of age story lines. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse

inkylabyrinth's review

emotional reflective sad

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

3.0

Both the kind of people and the kind of things that happen in this book hit way too close to home for me to be able to say if this book was "good" or even if I "liked" it or not.

I'm also moving away from asking questions like, "did I like this book?" and moving towards "what did I learn from this book?" or, "which piece of it am I going to carry with me?", or even, "how did it change me?"

I am really glad I read this, and I am really proud of myself for being able to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

samcanuel's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

The characters and plot of this book are quite messy, but it was beautifully written and very honest. The story had so many layers, between the main characters’ struggles with addiction, her identity, her family, and her love life. Each layer and the ways that they intertwined were treated with great care.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Drug use, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical content

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Abandonment, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Cancer, Vomit, War, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

skylarak's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not your typical story about Jewish ancestral trauma! A good reminder that it’s born fair or helpful to paint it all with one brush. Came for the Moldovan Jewish representation, stayed for the squirrel candies, sour cherry varenkiki, mamaliga, and iguana, and Suboxone rep! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Drug use, Addiction, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

siriface's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

kelseychild's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Murder, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Homophobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, and Hate crime

ashkane's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic relationship, Addiction, and Drug abuse

Minor: Mental illness

ukponge's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Medical content, Suicide, Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Violence, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit

ashleyjewell's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This book was a wild ride, and I have said that before but this one REALLY was wild. 

The un-named main character self medicated with LOTS of pills as she tries to navigate life without her chaotic sister Debbie. I really enjoyed reading the dynamic between her and Debbie and wished we got more of that. 

She later meets Sasha, a self proclaimed psychic, who I found equally captivating and frustrating. I found moments of their relationship really tender, and liked how they were processing their generational trauma together as two queer people from Russian-Jewish families who experienced the holocaust. 

I could go on but the book is so complex it’s best to just read it yourself! It’s definitely one I will be thinking about for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Medical content

toastgrl's review against another edition

This book is too sleazy for me, as I get older I don’t have an interest in this kind of stuff anymore. It was just wayyy too much. The plot is also def misleading, it seemed more like a thriller but the book really has nothing to do with her missing sister besides the fact that the MC grows from it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Drug abuse, and Classism