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emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
What does it take to love someone enough to walk away?
I’ve seen some folks disputing whether this book is a capital R Romance because it doesn’t focus that much on the relationship between the main couple. I would argue that this it is, and more than that it’s a love story.
Love and loving relationships come in many forms. The love between a parent and child, between siblings, and friends. These relationships shape us as much if not more than romantic ones.
Great Big Beautiful Life explores those many kinds of love through the story of a tragic family history and two people trying to navigate their careers, grief, and love in a world heavily impacted by the choices of the people in their past.
Time and again we see people making mistakes, hurting each other, but also showing hidden depths of love and devotion. We are shown how grief is an aspect of love not its antithesis.
But most of all, it’s about learning from the mistakes and lost chances of the past. From the tragedies of our families’ stories. Doing the hard work and to repair what can was broken, and build something better. That sometimes loving someone means fighting to stay with them.
I would recommend this book to fans of stories about famous people’s tragic lives, anyone who’s ready to think about the lost of a loved one to age and/or mental degradation, and love. Yeah, fans of love.
I’ve seen some folks disputing whether this book is a capital R Romance because it doesn’t focus that much on the relationship between the main couple. I would argue that this it is, and more than that it’s a love story.
Love and loving relationships come in many forms. The love between a parent and child, between siblings, and friends. These relationships shape us as much if not more than romantic ones.
Great Big Beautiful Life explores those many kinds of love through the story of a tragic family history and two people trying to navigate their careers, grief, and love in a world heavily impacted by the choices of the people in their past.
Time and again we see people making mistakes, hurting each other, but also showing hidden depths of love and devotion. We are shown how grief is an aspect of love not its antithesis.
But most of all, it’s about learning from the mistakes and lost chances of the past. From the tragedies of our families’ stories. Doing the hard work and to repair what can was broken, and build something better. That sometimes loving someone means fighting to stay with them.
I would recommend this book to fans of stories about famous people’s tragic lives, anyone who’s ready to think about the lost of a loved one to age and/or mental degradation, and love. Yeah, fans of love.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Abandonment
Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
nooooo🥲 she tried something different - less romance, more women’s fiction - but it reads like it was supposed to be a romance and the interview parts got carried away.
it also reads like (i hate to say) a rip off of Evelyn Hugo. the writing is juvenile, big plot points happen abruptly, the whole biography is just stereotypes of old hollywood (do we need more “woe is me” celebrity stories!?), and the romance is shallow if not unbelievable thanks to its being sidelined.
at least her writing is still compulsively readable and i dug the romance and family conflicts.
it also reads like (i hate to say) a rip off of Evelyn Hugo. the writing is juvenile, big plot points happen abruptly, the whole biography is just stereotypes of old hollywood (do we need more “woe is me” celebrity stories!?), and the romance is shallow if not unbelievable thanks to its being sidelined.
at least her writing is still compulsively readable and i dug the romance and family conflicts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy
Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Abandonment
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
the love interest has some disordered eating thinking/orthorexic habits
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Enjoyable but not my favourite of hers. I don’t feel like it flowed as well as it could have, and the balance between Alice’s story and Margaret’s/the interviews was a bit off for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol