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atan1101's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
skross2010's review
Did not rate because DNF'd around 30%. I tried so hard to get into this book but it was just meh. After reading some other reviews with spoilers, I am not unhappy I chose to DNF.
emileesackman23's review
4.0
I thought this was a great story but I’m super bummed with the ending :/ I really wanted to see them meeting pan out and it just ended so abruptly!! But I’ll give 4.25 for the rest
sylvieb's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
southern_belle_books_'s review
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.0
This book was absolutely beautiful. I don't think any review I write could do it justice. Incredibly heavy topics were handled in such a remarkable way. You couldn't help but understand and care for most, if not all, of the characters. By the time I finished the book, I didn't want it to end. I just wanted to spend more time with these characters reading about their stories.
j_milla_04's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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? It's complicated
3.0
bibi003's review
3.0
3.5 stars, rounded down. I listened to the audiobook and almost aborted the mission a few minutes into it because of the painfully slow and awkward cadence of the narrator. But I sped it up to 1.25 and powered through because I was curious about the story, which I did enjoy in the end.
There is a whole lotta implied neurodivergence in this cast of characters (a grandfather who speaks SOLELY in lines of poetry, a genius 8 year old wholly lacking in social cues) and a truck load of tragedy (content warnings for rape, cancer, brain aneurysms and impending death) but there is also love, forgiveness and healing. It ends on a note of hope for the future.
There is a whole lotta implied neurodivergence in this cast of characters (a grandfather who speaks SOLELY in lines of poetry, a genius 8 year old wholly lacking in social cues) and a truck load of tragedy (content warnings for rape, cancer, brain aneurysms and impending death) but there is also love, forgiveness and healing. It ends on a note of hope for the future.
tchtramcd's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
clel's review against another edition
3.5
This was just an ok book for me. I came across it on Libby when they were advertising it as the Together We Read book club pick which I have never heard of. It had unlimited copies because people from across the U.S. were going to be reading it. I didn't read it during the allotted time, but I still finished it nonetheless.
I'm not really sure what to say about this book other than I'm pretty neutral about it. Nothing bothered me beyond belief and nothing really profound jumped out to me. I thought overall, given the subject matter, it was handled pretty well. Though like some others have said, I'm not sure if I could personally be with a man who is the identical twin brother of the man who raped me. That's a bit of a stretch for me. But, I think that was the point of the story as in the beginning, the author writes a note of how the through-line of the book is about forgiveness. She says it's an interesting but difficult subject to tackle as we all have different meanings and ideas of what constitutes forgiveness and how you give and receive it. I appreciated that the author acknowledged that we might agree or disagree with her definition through how she chose to tell the story. I will say though, Jacob was written very well and was kind, gentle, giving, and extremely patient which was absolutely needed given what Sara was dealing with. I can only hope to find someone like Jacob one day.
If I had to pick a few things, in my opinion I think Sara "gets over" (for lack of a better phrase) the fact that Jacob is Daniel's twin brother, thus looking exactly like him, too fast. She definitely acknowledges it and is taken aback but it just seemed like she was ok with it soon after and started to show some attraction towards him. Again, just me personally because I'm not a poetry girl, but I wasn't a huge fan of the fact that her dad only spoke and communicated through poems. It just felt like an unnecessary obstacle to jump over when trying to move the plot or a conversation forward as pretty much every time it happens the character who is getting spoken to by him in poem/verse says they have to try to decipher what he is saying. Lastly, Birdie's redemption happens way too fast. For pretty much the entire book she is absolutely terrible, awful, blaming Sara for her own son's rape and refuses to accept what he did. But as soon as she meets Alana poof, now because there is physical proof of the rape she can't deny it anymore and they all forgive each other.
This is definitely a character driven story which I'm usually not a fan of, I need more action and plot to move the story along to make it interesting to me but I didn't mind this one. Maybe I wanted it to be a little more profound and have more to say but that's ok that it didn't. I probably won't remember much about this book but I don't regret reading it.
I'm not really sure what to say about this book other than I'm pretty neutral about it. Nothing bothered me beyond belief and nothing really profound jumped out to me. I thought overall, given the subject matter, it was handled pretty well. Though like some others have said, I'm not sure if I could personally be with a man who is the identical twin brother of the man who raped me. That's a bit of a stretch for me. But, I think that was the point of the story as in the beginning, the author writes a note of how the through-line of the book is about forgiveness. She says it's an interesting but difficult subject to tackle as we all have different meanings and ideas of what constitutes forgiveness and how you give and receive it. I appreciated that the author acknowledged that we might agree or disagree with her definition through how she chose to tell the story. I will say though, Jacob was written very well and was kind, gentle, giving, and extremely patient which was absolutely needed given what Sara was dealing with. I can only hope to find someone like Jacob one day.
This is definitely a character driven story which I'm usually not a fan of, I need more action and plot to move the story along to make it interesting to me but I didn't mind this one. Maybe I wanted it to be a little more profound and have more to say but that's ok that it didn't. I probably won't remember much about this book but I don't regret reading it.
zoekai's review against another edition
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting and Rape