Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

44 reviews

mr_cain's review against another edition

4.75

All too real. Rips your heart in two and forces you to confront how you exist in the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Grief, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, and Child abuse

Moderate: Infidelity, Homophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, Vomit, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Eating disorder, Drug use, and Body shaming

cadystanton's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Outing, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

jennaclarek's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

okay so either i am bad at reading summaries (likely) or nobody had the foresight to tell me this is apart of the "toxic friendgroups who are all a little in love with each other but also hate each other" universe (less likely)...because holy cow i wasn't expecting this powerhouse. immediately from the get go i was compelled by the writing, the characters, and the overall tone of this book. it's so well written, the prose is just breathtaking, and i really will need to pick it up again to underline all the fantastic passages in here. it touches on so many of my favorite things - academia, the complexities of queer friendship, grief...

this is a very dark book - it touches on some heavy topics, and overall there aren't a lot of positive scenes. it has flickers of light throughout, but a lot of it is unfair and a little hopeless and incredibly frustrating. but i think it's such a fantastic book because brandon taylor does not shy away from the darkness. the whole point of the book IS the darkness. that real life is like this. it's messy and chaotic and white people do ruin everything and sometimes "i'm sorry" isn't good enough, it's never good enough, but we all just walk around lying to each other saying we're fine and that's fine.

i don't have anything innovative to say! it's just a damn good book! and i will be revisiting in the future because it has so much incredible prose and the Point is Poignant. i could not put it down. i will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Blood, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death of parent, and Vomit

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Rape, and Vomit

Moderate: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity

snoodle_poodle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Rape, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Blood

adambsmith8's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Racism, Death of parent, and Grief

stierwood's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Everything about this book made sense. It had me thinking about whiteness in communication and friendships, and Wallace was a character exploration i had never read anything like. At first i was like ok, enough with the birds, but by the end i feel like i got it. Just really freaking astute, gutting, challenging, everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, Death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Rape, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse

kers_tin's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Violence, Grief, Sexual content, Homophobia, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Body shaming

Minor: Misogyny and Suicidal thoughts

akkun's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence

Moderate: Grief and Racism

fkshg8465's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Hard to read because there’s a lot of unresolved pain. Good antiracist and anti homophobic food for thought. A little too detailed on the science, but I like learning, so I won’t complain to much. Graphic content warning for sex, violence, and grief. Three stars because I wish the writing had been a little stronger. But upgrading to four stars because the characters were so vulnerable to the reader and sometimes with each other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Abandonment, Grief, Homophobia, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence