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_david_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Dementia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Sexual content, Outing, Alcoholism, Blood, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Addiction, Terminal illness, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: War, Infertility, Classism, and Vomit
tinytrashqueen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Death, Grief, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Dementia, Infidelity, Medical content, Self harm, and Death of parent
Moderate: Confinement and Chronic illness
Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism
Covid, Alzheimer's,bethsbookshelf's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I was gripped at the start and again in the middle, but overall disappointed,
The character development felt lack-lustre to me. Finn was arguably the most interesting character and all we got from him was a couple of emails, a very short paragraph about his spiralling into alcoholism and a lot of Diana’s inner monologue about how horrible he was, only to never be shown that with any concrete facts.
The whole theme of needing human connection and how living in pandemic isolation is not natural for our species was nice, but again, not original. That’s all everyone has talked about online since the first lockdown. Again, reflects on Jodi’s white privilege a little bit again when other people were struggling to eat, find shelter, survive during Covid. I know that Diana’s storyline
Anyway, I feel like I read 350 pages of information just so Diana could have a very slight character arc that wasn’t really rooted in anything tangible or concrete. Jodi Picoult is one of my favourite others and a huge reason I’m a writer today. She even wrote me a wedding card! But this book missed the mark for me, sadly.
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcohol and Alcoholism