A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand

bro...you can't love someone you just met
red flag red flag red flag red flag
*pretends to be shocked
The book got better towards the end...
560 Pages

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Hexagons are the bestagons


"Statistics: the con artist of math"
My math brain. I love it. My love of information. Yes. Tell me all the things.
The humor. The writing style. I love it.

The technicality arguing is just. Chef's kiss.
7 AM MASS. YAAAAAAAS.
It's the trying to figure the other person out and also knowing you'll never figure them out, and loving people with a mental illness for me.
I'm just...gonna be over here dying....because I feel seen....
304 Pages

TS Song: the verses of Dress, Archer

Wolfwood by Marianna Baer

"artistic colonization" don't you mean "artistic Colin-ization"
I wish the magic had like...been explained more, but that's not necessary for the story.
Hey look. Trauma.
Also art and magic. and art.
Just a heads up. this dark.
384 Pages

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

Hey look. The problem with the mind-sharing thing that I knew was gonna happen happened.\
Dimitri: 

We love Eddie. And Christian.
Cackles cause therapy is literally about how everything is connected even if you don't think it is.
....I'd appreciate it if we stop treating mental illness as like something that means a person is crazy....cause like....no....
464 Pages

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

(this is probably going to be a lame review, because I don't have words for it, except that I love that Jennette shared her story, because like.....sharing stories is hecka imporant)
Some of Jennette's story really resonated with me and like..oof.
I don't have words, but like...
I love Jennette. She's cool. I'd be friends with her.
320 Pages

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

I'm not crying. I'm not feeling things. How dare they bring up the Time Traveler's Wife.
But also. Let's go off about libraries and how important they are.
400 Pages

Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty

...hey....is that a reference to my girl St. Dymphna...cause....I think it is.... It is....I love her. Her feast day is my birthday
The Criminal Minds vibes.
SCREECHES AT THE AUTHOR'S NOTE.
fjksdasfjkldasfjkld
448 Pages

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

I. am. so. uncomfortable. I am having so much second-hand anxiety...like... But also can we just...hug Eleanor (after asking her if she's ok with a hug)
fdklsajj;l;j Raymond....I guess you could say everybody loves Raymond...haha. I'm funny.

Soft. Look at all the soft. Like....People caring and like....valuing Eleanor... I'm fine...
My feelings. Like....

Meow. kitty. I love her.
352 Pages

TS Song: Tolerate It, It's Nice to Have a Friend, this is me trying, Clean, Cold As You, 

Icebreakers by R. L. Graziadei

Insert the get-along shirt
They both love FMA Brotherhood
ALSO: the surviving on Iced Coffee
"Tom Holland and Zendaya: A bisexual's dream" I mean.
Ok but the dissociating when the depression is bad just hits. 
and the parents taking care of the kids but not knowing the kids....oof. 
ok but the fanfic.....smirk face. 
320 Pages

Taylor Swift Song: this is me trying (and Sparks Fly)

Beach Read by Emily Henry

"January is a unique name...It's not like I'm a Christy or a Christine" ....rude. 
Maybe depressed writers can only write depressing books...laughs uncomfortably
"promise not to fall in love with me"
Alexa play basically every song from Folklore cause it could be relevant.
hey look that's trauma that's been normalized when it shouldn't have been.
It's the people watching and the bouncing ideas of each other and being neighbors at the lake for me. 
I will protect Gus with literally everything in me--and also I relate to him because he has EMOTIONS that he wants to understand.
384 Pages

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

fdskallfjlsakflja;;gsldfhjfjkdsafjklsfdjklfds
Insert that scene of Rita Skeeter talking to Harry: "boy of 12" "...14"
I just. Love all of this. The fanart/fanfic aspect, the art and the writing, the angst and the mental health issues, and like jfkldsajklsfs.
I love Wallace and I love Eliza and I just wanna protect them. 
Also baby brothers. fjkdls
432 Pages

How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis, LPC

I. LOVE. K.C. Davis. Like y'all I don't think you understand. She has a TikTok page and she like....changed my perspective on so many things and like...she has so many tips for people with executive function issues.
Care. Tasks. Are. Morally. Neutral. 
"No one ever shamed themselves into better mental health" shots fricking fired. 
I just. I'm fine I'm gonna go cry.
160 Pages

To Sir Phillip With Love by Julia Quinn

--Just a warning--this is a rant...and also maybe a soap box. There might be spoilers, but also like meh. 

Hey it's like The Sound of Music (the trickster children, and the single father who hecka absent but well-meaning, and the girl who comes in) except I don't get to stare at Christopher Plummer for three hours, and instead of Nazis, there's stigmas against mental illness and people who struggle with suicidal thoughts. Oh and women. 
Yes. The mentally ill do recognize that they're typically seen as burdens. That's typically what hits them on the head in their brains. But all humans are burdens because that is the inherent nature of being human. Humans take up space.
I just love it when someone says "Your problems don't matter or count or compare to mine because I've suffered more,"
I really wanted to like Phillip... Because there were parts of him that were so good--he cared a lot about his children and he was nerdy--and then he would ruin it by saying something stupid. Maybe I'm just sensitive to depression and suicide for personal reasons, because other people enjoyed the book and thought it was romantic because he's a suffering hero or whatever. I think his first wife suffered more than him.
I recognize that Julia Quinn was trying to "explore mental illness in the time period." I don't think she did it well. She may have "represented" the time period and what mental illness was like, but like...no. It's fiction, so that means that you can treat your characters better than the time period would have.
416 Pages

The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee

My baby is so anxious and I feel so seen. 

"I ain't going to no secondary location"
Percy again. for the win. 
"you'd apologize if someone poured soup in your lap" ...I know that reference

This book has the audacity to make me cry because it makes me feel seen. Like.... the tension of having conversations with people. Staaaaaap. Also like...Sibling relationships in relation to trauma and like...working on sibling relationships. 
It's the mental illness and anxiety representation for me. 
592 Pages

Psalm of Storm and Silence by Roseanne A Brown

A new ship shows up: thanks I hate it. 
The whole "Find one thing" just...resonates with me for so many reasons.
And there's Madam Zeroni vibes

560 Pages

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

"A Jew, two negroes, a half-Chinese half-Irish girl, and a couple of Catholics" Am I here for the mentioning of how Catholics were also seen as outsiders in America. Yes. Also. what a squad. 
....I am concerned. Mabel. 
Cough. Captain America. 
Anytime any of the bad guys has a single thought or starts talking about being "Unamerican" or anything to do with eugenics:

Oh. My. God. I was not expecting ace-rep and there is ace-rep and honestly I am here for it.
Hey so there was a second where almost everyone was having a good time and just being teenagers...and then that moment ended. 
I'm just gonna go walk into the ocean. Because yeah. I'm in pain. Cause I got a feeling that someone's gonna die and I'm not gonna like it. 
I just....just let my babies be happy, and don't let this be like Crooked Kingdom for that one character that is kind of like that one character. 
560 Pages

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Ok but the mention of how people who were able to go home after 9/11 and be comforted were able to recover. 
I'm just...going to be snapping...because like...yes it's saying stuff I know, but I listen to trauma podcasts. 
and like.. how trauma makes it difficult for a person to judge if a situation is dangerous or not because of the amygdala. 
"Emotions assign value to experiences, and thus are the foundation of reason" snaaaaaaaaaaaaaps.
Reads a book about trauma. *talks about depersonalization. *laughs uncomfortably
Go off about the DSM5. Go off. I'll drink my tea and love it. 
So I knew this book was going to attack me...but like...
Also I really appreciate that we talk about how trauma doesn't stop affecting the body and the mind when we're not thinking about trauma, and how often times victims of trauma know that their reaction is an over-reaction, but they can't stop it because the body has trained itself to keep itself safe. 
464 Pages

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

 Alex and Ellis. Similar sounding names.

....I'm...like...sus of these people
Also...my Catholic senses are just...nah bro, don't do any of that.


384 Pages

The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

"There is no point spending an entire life trying to win the love you didn't feel when you needed it" ....ummmm...ow. I knew I was going to be called out, but not like this. 

"You cannot try to be; you can only let yourself be"
272 Pages

Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker

Ok but like....am I seeing how far I've come in my healing...yes... Am I still working on stuff. Also yes. 
I really liked that he went through and showed the process of healing and the steps (in terms of things that need to be dealt with first in order to more fully deal with deeper issues), and gave examples of flashbacks.
I also really liked how he went into the four trauma responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) and detailed other ways that they present themselves even as subtypes.
376 Pages