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toebeans's review against another edition
dark
sad
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
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry
saxy_lady's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
4.75
This book was a HEAVY read, make no mistake. But I related so much to the main character it shook me to my core. Not only does this book depict a beautiful and yearning sapphic romance, but it also takes a good hard look at depression. This may be the most accurately depicted depression I have seen in quite a while. I remember sitting and reading this and thinking “I feel/felt the same way!!!”
This book is not for everyone. It triggered me a little bit, but FOR ME it was SO WORTH IT. There are resources in the back of the book for numerous agencies that help LGBT youth and those suffering with depression and suicidal thoughts.
Ultimately, you know yourself better than anyone. If reading about depression and suicidal ideation is going to be an issue. There’s no shame in skipping it. But if you can do it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. I don’t think a book has made me feel this much in a long time.
This book is not for everyone. It triggered me a little bit, but FOR ME it was SO WORTH IT. There are resources in the back of the book for numerous agencies that help LGBT youth and those suffering with depression and suicidal thoughts.
Ultimately, you know yourself better than anyone. If reading about depression and suicidal ideation is going to be an issue. There’s no shame in skipping it. But if you can do it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed. I don’t think a book has made me feel this much in a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
aclifshitz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Heartbreaking story about the end of the world and how Avery, a suicidal college student, wants to spend her last 9 days before an asteroid strikes earth.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt
upbeatmetaphor's review
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
There is some excellent prose on depression here, without being too hammy or self-help-y. It isn't therapy/education couched in story, it is story.
I don't think it quite hit me like it could have, maybe because I always find myself resentful of friends or partners that are so close that they seem to be speaking almost in physical code, like the rest of the world is somehow knitted outside them, even when they're not alone.
I was expecting a hang ending from about halfway through and I wasn't happy about that, but when it came... I dunno, I feel like the entire book is surrounded in a big stuff/small stuff flip, and that works, and makes sense. You can't change the big unassailable interstellar things, so they become your scenery far more than your story.
Might revisit some sections but don't expect to re-read.
The revenge-heist-without-any-expectation-of-consequences was a bit weird
I don't think it quite hit me like it could have, maybe because I always find myself resentful of friends or partners that are so close that they seem to be speaking almost in physical code, like the rest of the world is somehow knitted outside them, even when they're not alone.
I was expecting a hang ending from about halfway through and I wasn't happy about that, but when it came... I dunno, I feel like the entire book is surrounded in a big stuff/small stuff flip, and that works, and makes sense. You can't change the big unassailable interstellar things, so they become your scenery far more than your story.
Might revisit some sections but don't expect to re-read.
Content Warnings
Minor: Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
teawitchontravel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Alcohol, Homophobia, Cursing, Lesbophobia, Outing, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Death and Suicide
Be warned, this book will probably make you cry more then once. It is a beautiful story about pain, hope and love, not only others but also self love. It's a story about the light in our darkest moments. I personally really enjoy the writing style and use of flashbacks to give even more insights on the character's relationships and past. Those were the perfect addition to the story and as interesting as the main part of it, neither their content nor how much they appeared distracted from the main story or was boring. While I was reading the novel I felt like I was there with them and it definitely pulled me in. The diverse cast made me personally really happy and I think shows a beautiful represantation for the LGBTQIA+ community. I loved everything about it and can't wait for more books from this author.daffodildyke's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
4.5
“Good luck, brave and beautiful strangers. Aren't we the lucky ones walking into the night, all eyes on the same star? Aren't we the lucky ones? We were here for a time to dream.
We still are.”
cw : suicide; religious trauma
i read this from cover to cover in one night, and it has taken me far longer to write a review than it should have… because i couldn’t find the words. quoting sections is the best i can do to summarise my feelings.
a complicated, honest and nuanced approach to the apocalypse that i didn’t realise i needed as much as i did.
“They thought I was thriving. I liked that they thought that about me. I needed them to think that about me.
But it wasn't real. I had a lot to fake.”
Avery is a suicidal college student with plans to end her life, but that morning they find out a meteorite is heading to earth and the world is probably going to end. the story charts the 9 “remaining” days of the world.
Having chronic depression since childhood and my fair experience of suicidal ideation, i am always baffled by the people who fight tooth and nail to survive in apocalyptic situations. Avery feels so close to home in this - to be actively on the verge of going through with plans and to find out the whole world might be ending and have to process you didn’t want to live to begin with feels so intense.
There is a danger with this that Avery could have felt unrealistic, but the process of her processing how the end of the world forced her to want to live life to the fullest feels so very real, so well mapped. Throughout the entire story you can feel the emotional conflict, the fear and the confusion, the betrayal of her own plans, the betrayal of trust in others. The feeling of everything going “right” but still feeling so empty and numb, only being changed by everything going “wrong”.
“I wondered, as I buckled myself back into my car, if I should give it all up and become a nun. Want for nothing. Serve something I no longer believed in. Turn my brain off, turn my heart off, die in a million little ways.”
The complicated approach to religion and the impact of religion, especially at the end of the world is so profound. In so many ways, Avery and Cass are not tied into faith or religion, the people in their lives do not condemn them for who they are, and that feels familiar - it’s more subtle, more insidious - the ways religion impacts their thoughts and feelings about themselves and others, the way that they are told they are love despite their queerness or that her depression and suicidal thoughts are sinful. The pure power of this quote later on in the book speaks to my inner child, to the characters inner child and to so many people who have been made to feel less for who they are or how they feel!
"No," I said. “If there's a God or Gods, they'll forgive me or they won't. I came here to tell you that you shouldn't ever, ever tell a child or anyone they're wrong or sinful or blasphemous for being who they are. You shouldn't ever tell anyone they're damned for being sad, for struggling.”
Another reason to love this book is that amidst all of this depth and complexity, there is so many playful moments. The humour and warmth spread by so many of the characters will stay with me long after finishing this.
The way we are left with an ending that is not The End is so important and so improbable, and it doesn’t matter, maybe Cass and Avery survive, maybe they don’t, maybe the world doesn’t end but maybe it does… the main thing is that they got to feel like they lived in those last days, if they were the last days they had. I don’t like not knowing what happens, but i think for this story this was the most important thing.
And maybe none of it was ever real, maybe Avery wades into the water at the beginning and everything is actually happening in her head; a way of showing her what was always there if she had been able to see through the fog of depression. Maybe the end of the world is her purgatory, maybe it’s her heaven… maybe it doesn’t matter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death
Minor: Religious bigotry
soapyhopey's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I really thought I wouldn’t like this book. From the cover and the blurb it sounded like it would be a YA romance. It was that sort of but much more existential than I would have thought.
I think this book does a great job of showing what it’s like to be depressed and suicidal. The author does a good job of show those thoughts and feelings even to the point where you can question how reliable of a narrator is Avery being. I like that the chapters alternate times before the asteroid and what’s happening currently. I feel like Cass is really flat and the way they handle talking about Avery’s suicide attempt as very flippant which was really disappointing. Overall it was a book that was way better than I expected.
I think this book does a great job of showing what it’s like to be depressed and suicidal. The author does a good job of show those thoughts and feelings even to the point where you can question how reliable of a narrator is Avery being. I like that the chapters alternate times before the asteroid and what’s happening currently. I feel like Cass is really flat and the way they handle talking about Avery’s suicide attempt as very flippant which was really disappointing. Overall it was a book that was way better than I expected.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
loverrbboy's review against another edition
4.75
this loses .25 ONLY BECAUSE i think that the content warning “contains discussions of suicide and depression” DOES NOT CUT IT in a book where you are following a protagonist who is literally about to off herself on the first page.
ripped my shit wide open, got me to talk about my own mental health history in certain terms with my dear friend, and got me to cry through the wall of testosterone, like properly REALLY cry.
recommend for anyone who has lived their life similarly “high functioning” but without the strength to be soft and love more - just dear god be gentle with yourself❤️
ripped my shit wide open, got me to talk about my own mental health history in certain terms with my dear friend, and got me to cry through the wall of testosterone, like properly REALLY cry.
recommend for anyone who has lived their life similarly “high functioning” but without the strength to be soft and love more - just dear god be gentle with yourself❤️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
professor_jango's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Death, Grief, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts
beaky's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this book is heartbreaking in the best possible way. Please read it, although be very careful of the trigger warnings and stay away if the topic of suicide would be triggering for you! Avery is so much and all her family and friends are the most wonderful people! The book’s emotive and metaphorical language was so beautiful and well done! FIVE F*CKING STARS!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Gun violence, Grief, Death, and Cursing
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Abortion