Reviews

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

jenmcmaynes's review against another edition

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2.0

Meh. Overblown, pretentious language coupled with characters suffering from tragic pasts having trite insights into the nature of grief, life, and death. I was not impressed.

megatsunami's review against another edition

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3.0

Perhaps I ought to give this book more stars because of its literary quality, but the truth is that I just "liked" it, and didn't "really like it." The story had a lot of beautiful, haunting qualities and I found the characters believable and worthwhile. But the literary devices were a little too self-conscious for me and (along with the philosophical passages) at times jarred me out of the story in ways that didn't feel especially profound. Also, sometimes I just really didn't understand what was happening in the story because the writing was overly poetic. (I used to find that kind of thing really deep, but these days I don't have the patience.) P.S.
SpoilerI wanted this book to be bisexual but it wasn't. Bummer.

littlemisscass's review against another edition

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3.0

It wasn't the kind of book I usually read. And as much as there were parts I look back on as not really liking so much, it was very well written and I loved the overall message.

dremps92's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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

poachedeggs's review against another edition

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2.0

I found this incredibly pretentious. The characters felt like distant mouthpieces, voicing profound 1-sentence thoughts. For a book about grief, this felt altogether too light and whimsical.

fha's review

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

3.75

cheungayin_'s review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

lilnono90's review against another edition

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4.0

The prose was so beautiful. An exploration of grief delivered with gorgeous lyricism. 4.25 stars

kelliepalmer's review against another edition

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2.0

Dumb book. It was actually rather poetic at parts. I liked how he described feelings, emotions, scenery, etc. But he kept changing the person that was speaking. That annoyed me. Keep it all the same please!

lindacbugg's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5