Reviews

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

torill_'s review

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emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

chthoniclamb's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

intensebeet's review

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

3.5

notallbooks_mp's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

lmblue's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

klohrentz's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

4.5

nonagon's review

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emotional inspiring 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

4.75

melodramajestic's review

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emotional 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

3.75

storytimed's review

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5.0

Good book. Very, very good book
It's set in 2009 post-recession in the US — Sneha is a recent immigrant from Kerala working a shitty consulting job and having furtive relationships with women
Deals with a lot of heavy topics like addiction, eviction, racism, CSA, poverty, immigration issues but I think the very calm and clear narration works well with that? Like, it's part of Sneha's personality to see things from a distance and that keeps the difficult topics from overtaking the narrative
I love that the book doesn't try to make her 100% Likable.. like she's secretive and blows up at her friends for no reason and judgmental about money and also a bit nonbinary-phobic until her friend comes out and she immediately turns to "hey, I don't fully get it but I'm here for you and will 100% respect you"
It's almost a novel of manners? Very much concerned with how much money everyone makes and how they can afford to stay in the city! There are all these tiny little social conflicts that pop up: Sneha's friend Amit works a nice tech job and consistently lends a childhood friend who is in addiction recovery absurd amounts of money, Sneha is disdainful of her white friend Tom's leftist politics, Sneha thinks her friend Tig and their wife are trying to have a threesome with her but she's kinda mean in bed and doesn't want them to see that

One of Sneha's beloved friends starts a mutual aid co-op house/commune that is very clearly described, and when I looked up the author I discovered that Mathews also started a mutual aid organization in Brooklyn!
It's a very queer book in terms of identity, if that makes sense? Like it's not just about being f/f but a queer orientation to life... loving friends and making community your center, dedicating yourself to the people in your life who need you
OTOH it doesn't 100% fall into the Living With Friends Rules romanticism that a lot of young queer people fall into

I mean @(friend) and I can both testify to the experience of living with queer friends with a sort of "we all take care of each other!" attitude, but Mathews does make it clear that leftist queer roommates are, like. Roommates. Sometimes they won't do the dishes and their personality quirks will annoy you and they'll have guests over that you don't want to have over
If you read this book at one point one character will get into the "let's all live together!" utopian dream and the other will be like "ok but.. how are you going to pay for this. I'm looking for more of like a project plan" and you will recognize Yourself

ehmvert's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0