Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

54 reviews

nialystic's review

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hopeful inspiring reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25


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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


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laurensilva's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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starbeans's review against another edition

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cw: child abuse, sexual abuse, heavy drug use, alcoholism, transphobia

I… can't really rate this. 
Sneha is a first-generation Indian American woman whose parents have gone back to India, leaving her alone in a foreign country at just 17 years of age. Sneha massively struggles — with her existence as an immigrant, with her queerness, and, honestly, with her gender.

I liked how it handled a lot of its very complex themes. There's a huge amount of friendship, of warmth, of how differently topics surrounding mental illness are still handled throughout the world. Of how differently trauma can resurface in different people, or in the same person at different times. The communist themes spoke to me, but what unfortunately did not, was the transphobia. It got better the longer the book went on, but there was definitely some unresolved gender-questioning going on in Sneha that felt like it was just brushed aside, at least for me.

Still, after having my doubts about this for the first third, I'd recommend reading this!

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sammyofthevalley's review

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

2.5

This wasn’t my type of book - I don’t usually read sad endings or books which are completely focused on angst. However, I also feel justified in disliking it, as the main character never develops. My FAVORITE part of books is character development, but the only upward motion we see in S is because of a time skip when the development has happened without the reader. I would have liked a lot more payoff for suffering through her situation. But that’s how life is

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lorenag5's review

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challenging emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.0


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kate_ka's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-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

4.25


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araines's review

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emotional hopeful 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


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epen's review

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emotional inspiring sad tense medium-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

3.5

Prose style a bit choppy for me—it took me some time to get used to. A bit overwritten in that vein sometimes, but not too often; I think the author’s descriptive language and use of literary devices were mostly solid. Complex queer characters and good portrayals of friendship. Dialogue a little off sometimes. Totally gratuitous transphobia toward non-binary people by the protagonist that sort of improved by the end of the novel but not sufficiently for how explicit it initially was. 
 
Loved the portion of the book during which S was with her family in India, and particularly the portions about the plants that grew. Also encouraging for a story to have a coming out arc that didn’t end in disownment.
 
sometimes felt a little 2018 for a book written in 2022. 
Overall enjoyed and would recommend. 

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