Reviews tagging 'Grief'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

10 reviews

k_a_i's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.5

Beautiful read - life is messy but what is left at the end? Love as a practice - love as a way to move forward. Love as effort. 

The things I have critiques on about this book seem to still serve the vision, narrative & context of this book so very good read overall! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Addiction, Police brutality, Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence

sirthatsacowboy's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Deportation, Addiction, Grief, Sexual content, and Drug use

Moderate: Racism and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Incest

jdianm's review

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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Abandonment, Deportation, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, and Sexual content

Minor: Eating disorder, Police brutality, and Homophobia

jessalex610's review

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective tense slow-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

A very relatable story about a young freshly out of college person, trying to figure out her sexuality and her way in the world, while bringing in a refreshing immigrant perspective. I cried many times. I screamed many times. But mostly I just felt a very deep sense of relatability and comfort that I am not the only young person also struggling to figure out what their life is in their mid-20s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Deportation, Mental illness, and Addiction

Minor: Transphobia

rachelmichelson's review

challenging dark inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

This took me awhile, but I'm glad I stuck with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Xenophobia

sxndaze's review against another edition

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

3.5

The second half of the book is what really captured me. The writing is gorgeous and really draws you in. Reading about Sneha’s experiences and the micro aggressions and the struggles and racism is all too relatable as someone who is starting out in the world. But it’s hard to get past the transphobia and fatphobia and centering of whiteness. I don’t care for Marina. But the found family aspect is lovely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Alcoholism, Deportation, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Sexual assault, and Misogyny

rachaelwho's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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

Pacing was off for me. It took me a long time to get invested, and even once I had, the first act felt so long that I was surprised to find more acts beyond it. But the author had a lot to say. It's not 5 stars bc it's perfect, but because there's nothing worth faulting it for, if that makes sense. A very caring, thoughtful book. Excellent voice acting from the narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Drug use, Incest, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Outing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Deportation, Fatphobia, and Sexual violence

readswithcocktails's review against another edition

slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

This book is full of gorgeous prose, well developed characters, and powerful themes. Ultimately, though, it wasn't my cup of tea. I feel weird saying it's too literary, but I'm definitely a genre girl. I like my social commentary through futuristic scifi worlds and fantasy realms. I can see why a lot of people love it though. I appreciated this book and will definitely check out the author's next novel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Racism

Minor: Drug use and Drug abuse

billyjepma's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.5

I had to read this in increments over several months, not because it wasn’t good or because I wasn’t invested, but because it rang with a truth too heavy for me to manage at the time. I will admit to not reading much fiction of this style—you all know that I live in weird genre stuff almost exclusively—so take this with a grain of salt if you want, but this is one of the most honest and truthful representations of what it feels like to be a twenty-something in America. All of the crushing anxieties over whether you’re political enough, angry at the right things, aware of your internalized prejudices, rebellious against the systems that you know will also keep you alive and happy, the quiet bitterness at how goddamn hard it all is—all of that is here in savage details that feel sharply unique yet fully relatable. 

Even when the protagonist makes mistakes and acts like a shitty person, Matthew’s characterization ensures that we know it’s a side effect of a deeper issue (usually internalized racism, prejudice, or self-hatred redirected outward). Our world is messy, and the people in it are clumsy, and I appreciate it when a book lets its protagonist be messy and clumsy without defining her by those things. 

The book is also rich with cultural specificities that reckon with realities I’ve never experienced or probably considered—the fears, hopes, and other turbulent, fragile emotions involved in trying to, or trying not to, assimilate into a society that might not want you. That Matthews does it with this much confidence and care feels like a massive feat. She wields emotion like a scalpel and a sledgehammer, sometimes simultaneously. It leads to a book that’s often ugly in how honest it is—which is why I had to pace my reading—but also deeply empathetic. There’s tremendous compassion in these pages, compassion that’s informed by harsh realities and supported by fragile hopes that, when carried communally, can become the precious things that keep us alive. 

A wonderful book. I don’t think I’ll ever read it again, but it has left fingerprints on me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Cursing, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Grief, Addiction, Deportation, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Drug abuse, Blood, and Vomit

danidamico's review

emotional funny reflective sad

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

4.0

"The anger did not arise from what he was describing; it rose from an expectation for a much better life than the one he owned".

"I stared off into the low dark, thinking about how to shape a life's great turbulence into a story".
 
"How will we learn about the world if not from each other?".
 
"My family is a geode of silences. You would need a hammer to smash it open".
 
"Just as romantic love faded or fractured, so too could friendship end. But nobody consoles you after a rupture with a beloved friend. There are few movies ideal for watching while your tears salt pints of ice cream, no articles in women's magazines that you can skim at the hairdresser's. You have only the ache. No script to accompany it. No ritual to give it shape".
 
"How was anyone expected to dream loftily about the future when the present ground them down to powder and nothingness?".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Deportation, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Police brutality, Transphobia, and Outing