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The More you Ignore me
Jo Brand | 2022
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
31 of 230
Book
The more you ignore me
By Jo Brand
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Celebrity obsession, coming of age and cow shit - an hilarious, poignant and darkly comic novel by the Queen of Comedy.

Alice is a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family in Herefordshire in the 1980s. Her mother is suffering a mental illness - she is on medication, is put away in an institution, but constantly escapes - while her father, Keith, very sweetly, tries to keep everything together. His in-laws, the Wildgooses, are a bunch of reckless, lawless country bumpkins and can offer very little help or sensible advice, preferring instead to remain in the pub or to use a shotgun to solve life's little problems. The only thing that gives meaning and hope to Alice as she makes her way through childhood, school and teenage trauma is her obsession with the singer Morrissey of The Smiths. She is desperate to see The Smiths at a live gig, but somehow her family always manages to derail her plans. Gradually her mother begins to share her fascination with the rock god and his presence in their lives goes someway to healing her and repairing her relationship with her long-suffering daughter.

This was really good! It was funny and darkly so. It follows the life of a young girl dealing with the effects her mothers mental illness has on her and her father. It’s has a dark underlay that as someone who struggles mentally I can relate too. So much better than I was expecting.
  
Turtles All The Way Down
Turtles All The Way Down
John Green | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
6
8.4 (60 Ratings)
Book Rating
I really enjoy John Green's novels, however, this one was only just okay. I think because I struggle with an Anxiety disorder myself, I couldn't fully engage with this novel. I did like the accurate representation of the struggle with a mental illness, though I also felt like there were way too many moments where I wanted to shake the protagonist and say, "TAKE THE HELP OFFERED TO YOU!!!! YOU HAVE SO MUCH HELP!!!!!" Again, this is a personal issue for me, and has no bearing objectively on how the book is. I did appreciate the quotes and how Mr. Green views modern adolescents as being smart and well read. I just didn't connect as much as I would have liked to.
  
My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper
Jodi Picoult | 2009 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.1 (52 Ratings)
Book Rating
The story will make your heartbroken. I know there a movie called the same thing but the ending has changed from the books ending. If you watched the movie before reading this book your are going to get surprise ending either way but especially by the book ending.

Anna doe go to court hearing to get a medical emancipation from her parents. You see how each member of the family is suffering from her older sister Kate illness. It is something you should have tissures around for it a bit sad. You also start to understand the movie a bit but I really like the book better then the movie. Though I was shock to see what sister dies in book.
  
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Kristina (502 KP) rated You in Books

Dec 7, 2020  
You
You
Caroline Kepnes | 2014 | Crime, Mystery
4
8.0 (27 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was not as impressed with You as I'd hoped I would be. At first, I thought it was extremely unique, the perspective, and I still think that, but after about 20 chapters it was starting to wear down on me. I kept second guessing Joe's knowledge, because what if he had an actual mental illness and only saw things the way he wanted to see them? I was interested to find out what would happen in the end between Joe and Beck; it was an interesting story, to say the least. I just didn't feel like all the hype was absolutely necessary. I will say that Caroline wrote something completely different and that, at least before it grated on me, was refreshing.
  
TF
The Front Porch Prophet
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book tells the story of two lifelong friends...1 a shift manager at a sawmill, the other a younger, cancer ridden bootlegger. The novel moves seamlessly between flashbacks of when A.J. & Eugene were young & the present day. The story deals with Eugene's slow decline into the late stages of pancreatic cancer & how A.J. comes to terms with his friend's eventual demise. It provides a heartbreaking look into what a caner patient deals with as well as what that person's family & friends deal with. It was sad, but at the same time there was plenty of humor dispersed throughout the tale to keep the reader from getting too depressed with Eugene's illness.
In the end, many long held secrets come to light. The end is bittersweet, but realistic.
  
Patti Cake$ (2017)
Patti Cake$ (2017)
2017 | Drama
7
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A film that tries to be a little quirky but doesn't manage it, still does a good job of following the story of Patti Dombrowski (Patti Cake$) as she tries everything she can to claw her way out of her ordinary town and dead end job while juggling the dysfunctional relationship with her mother, the illness of her grandmother and the constant mockery she faces for her aspirations.

The soundtrack is addictively good, none better than PBNJ and Tuff Love and there's definitely a lot of talent within the cast. The only part of the film that gets particularly touching is towards the end when they're performing the last song but otherwise the emotion is pretty absent, which is a shame because it's a film that does try to drum a lot of it up.
  
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MrsR (11 KP) rated Broken Child in Books

Aug 16, 2018  
Broken Child
Broken Child
Marcia Cameron | 1995 | Biography
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Based on a true stort
Contains spoilers, click to show
This powerful tale takes readers on a harrowing, unforgettable journey into the nightmare of parental abuse and the darkness of mental illness. Written by a woman who endured horrendous abuse from her mother and became a split personality by the age of five, here is the story of her agonizing childhood, the conflicting personalties, and struggle back to sanity.

Marcia was a toddler when she first recalls the abuse. Her mother a devoted Hitler youth , who moved to America. Didnt love her daughter because she was half Jewish and looked so. This book is not for the weak of heart. You will be moved and emotional at how a mother can do this and the struggle Marcia faced to get to "normal" life.
  
Brain on Fire (2016)
Brain on Fire (2016)
2016 | Drama
Highlights the real life presentation of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (2 more)
Engaging and emotive plot
Highlights issues surrounding misdiagnosis and psychiatric incarceration
Over acted (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie is unsettling as it is based on a true story, told in the book of the same name by Suzannah Cahalan.
A healthy young woman in her early 20's suddenly and inexplicably withdraws from life. As her personality is destroyed as is much of her life. The illness begins with sensory sensitivity and confusion and ends in catatonia.
When watching it I found myself trying to figure out what exactly what could make someone act like this. Epilepsy, stress, schizophrenia, mental breakdown. The diagnosis was none of these and it reminds the viewer that the brain is a complex and vulnerable entity that could fail in numerous ways.
  
The Deuce - Season 3
The Deuce - Season 3
2019 | Drama
Great story arcs (0 more)
A good end
So the final series as we now enter 1985. The porn industry is changing with the introduction of VHS and also camcorders available. The prostitution game has changed as well meaning less money for organised crime, drug deals are being done, relationships of the main characters are going in different directions. Street crime has become a problem and the city what to clean up the Deuce to make way for million dollar property investments. The Hiv illness is also rife at the time.
Maybe slightly weaker than the first 2 series and overall not as dramatic in terms of storylines, but still with some big surprises. If you have invested in the first 2 series it's worth watching this to see how it turns out for the characters.
  
The Cat Lady
The Cat Lady
2012 | Action/Adventure, Puzzle & Cards
Superb Artwork (5 more)
Brilliant soundtrack
Dark, gory and surreal
Interesting puzzle work
Multiple endings
Steam card and achievements
Not enough user interaction sometimes (1 more)
May not be suitable for those in vulnerable mental health states
A dark, twisted journey into mental illness
The Cat Lady really surprised me. The dark, almost minimal, graphics styles led me to believe this wasn't going to be much of a horror game but how wrong I was. This game has a way of sucking you in and chewing you up, then spitting you out as a glob of emotionally affected goop.

The story follows a female protagonist, Susan Ashworth. She's alone and on the verge of suicide, constantly questioning the worth of her existence. After a significant event, she meets an odd woman who sets her on a journey to meet 5 very dark people who may change her outlook on life....for better or worse. Who can she trust, if anyone at all?

I would recommend that if you suffer from mental illness, suicidal thoughts or if you have issues with emotional triggers then you either don't play this or you play with others (unless you know you're in a good place). While the game IS a basic point and click, it still deals with a LOT of mental health issues; some of the scenes were hard even for me, and I consider myself in a good place mentally right now.

Overall I was seriously impressed with this game, it took me 11 hrs to play but that was including distractions and just leaving the game sitting while I did things, so I maybe got about 8 hrs of straight play. Indie horror point and clicks are so rare and this one is an example for the entire genre.