Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Stora vackra liv by Emily Henry

66 reviews

supermormongirl's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

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This is absolutely not a thriller, despite what it’s being marketed as

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Classism

Minor: Classism

clothildev's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Emily Henry we are so back!!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

infjkiki's review against another edition

5.0

emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent

Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Abandonment

Minor: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Stalking, Gaslighting

toriauricht's review against another edition

3.0

emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, Pregnancy

kelseyfontaine's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I really liked this Emily Henry book! Not my favorite of hers, but it’s up there. The whole interview-a-celebrity thing generally feels a bit overdone for me, and it also caused the romance between Alice and Hayden to feel a bit rushed. I feel like I wasn’t able to see full development between the two of them as much as I would’ve liked, but I still loved the two of them together. I also never really like when the story

ends in a pregnancy that seems unnecessary, so that kind of threw me a little bit.

On the positive side, I really enjoyed hearing dual story lines and trying to figure out Margaret’s story as the book went along. It made it more fun to read for me. And, of course, EH’s banter between the leads is always fantastic, so I loved those scenes as well. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Car accident, Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Dementia

andemilytoo's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Death of parent

Minor: Terminal illness

shannahtan's review against another edition

3.5

emotional hopeful 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: Complicated

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It wasn’t my favorite Emily Henry book, and I still enjoyed it. It was a slow burn then the ending felt really rushed.

Personally, I didn’t super care for the first 30% of the Ives family history.

I really wanted Alice to

make friends on the island and actually hang out with people other than Hayden.

I can understand that the friend group chat was easier for the storyline to not get too long and complicated. Although, she does

stay in Georgia to tell her mom’s story at the end, leaving all her friends in LA

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Dementia, Classism

Moderate: Car accident

ju_harue's review against another edition

5.0

emotional lighthearted reflective 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

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Tornou-se minha obra favorita da autora. A abordagem da maternidade, criação dos filhos e história familiar foi brilhante, profundamente comovente.  Existem diversos gatilhos, aconselho os leitores mais sensíveis a consultar o StoryGraph para mais informações. 
Sem dúvida, lembrou-me "Evelyn Hugo", de Taylor Jenkins Reid, contudo, a singularidade da autora e seu estilo de escrita permaneceram evidentes. O desfecho surpreendente foi extraordinário, mantendo-me em suspense e sem fôlego até o final.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Alcohol

danielledeal's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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If The Lucky One by Taylor Swift was a story, it would be Margaret. 

I absolutely devoured this book; I picked it up and could barely do anything else, including sleep. I think Hayden is one of my favorite EH love interests. I adored him from the moment he accidentally drank Alice's too-sweet iced latte and he never disappointed me. Something about him is just so good. It did not take any convincing for me to like them as a couple. There was something so fulfilling about seeing them come together over something not completely centered on their work; it felt like a genuine, real connection. 

I enjoyed the plot and especially the element of mystery, of piecing together the story alongside Alice. I would've liked a bit more at the end, after some of the character revelations. I wanted to revisit the relationships with

Cecil

and

Jodi

- maybe even a nice little fluff piece on the island, without drawing attention to Margaret of course. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent

Pregnancy jump scare at the end but I thought it was a valid addition and handled well.

oceanwriter's review against another edition

3.75

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Going into this book, I’d read and heard a lot of mixed reviews saying that this book deviates from Emily Henry’s typical style. I wasn’t too concerned about this because the style of this book actually aligns more with my typical reading preferences, so I feel I was lucky in this regard. 

 

Alice and Hayden are both given a month to vie for the chance to write the life story of an aged former celebrity, Margaret Ives, now living in seclusion. The competition isn’t exactly bitter as Alice and Hayden connect. Unfortunately, thanks to NDAs, neither of them can discuss their interviews with Margaret. This becomes increasingly difficult for Alice in particular as the month goes on. 

 

While certainly different than what I’m used to from Emily Henry, I did enjoy this. That said, this isn’t necessarily the kind of book I’m looking for when picking up her work. I think I would have preferred to listen to the audiobook. I also found it too similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s less of a romcom and closer to general fiction. Which, again, is not an issue for me, but might be for people expecting another Beach Read. 

 

I enjoyed the scenes with Alice and her mother the most. I liked how that situation played out, and I liked watching Alice’s growth through these situations. Honestly, I could have read an entire book about them and leave or take Hayden. I liked him, but I feel like we missed out not hearing his POV. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual content, Car accident, Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Dementia