Reviews

Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee

miaaa_lenaaa's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

D:
This was so fun and heartbreaking and cute and made me so intensely afraid
So well written and the audiobook was really good too
It felt actually original which isnt that common in a lot of popular fiction atm (not trying to attack other books was just impressed by this one)

Oh yeah and also while reading this book (about nightmares) i consistently had nightmares (which is rare for me) so i think this book is magic

‘On the bright side, the fact that Abernathy has no choice means this must be his destiny.’

‘In some cultures its god you find in the dark, in Abernathy’s culture it is only fear.’

‘Love moved through her with violence’

‘How embarrassing that is, attempting to hold something and realising it is too heavy to carry.’

‘How does one even prove the absence of something?’

‘Is there worth in the things you cannot see?’

‘What if i wake up everyday and forget who i was the day before’

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Death, Child death, and Domestic abuse

kmp30's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

alinareading's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

jvord777's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

rockinrobin85's review against another edition

dark

2.75

amyw's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

dullhilarity's review against another edition

2.0

This book was poor just like our protagonist, which is a shame, because I think it had potential. I picked it up because I heard comparisons to Severance (the television series), and while I get that a little bit, in order for me to fully enjoy it, it needed to lean into the weirdness far more than it did. As a book, it felt very uninspired and like the most debut-y thing I've read in a while, and I've read some very good debuts in the past. There was SO much telling and not showing. I get its intent, but it could have been done a lot better. The ending was also quite bad, I'm afraid.

dcalacci's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

megansmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was interesting! I was pulled in by the premise and the follow through definitely didn't disappoint - this fit well in the genre of workplace trauma, just packaged in an entirely new premise. I appreciated the new concept and I was really intrigued to know where McGee was taking this novel. The writing was also great - I found myself skipping sentences, tied up in the dialogue, and then having to backtrack so I could catch the descriptive writing around the dialogue. 

My only two gripes with this would be - 1) I feel like i missed parts of this book because Jonathan in this case is introduced as someone that's pretty dim-witted and is clearly an unreliable narrator. That's fine, however I feel like there were a lot of key moments where I was supposed to be picking something really terrifying up and just totally missed the point of it. Which leads me to, 2) for how much it's hammered in that Jonathan does not make it to the end of the book (NOT A SPOILER, it's literally on the first page), I wish the third person narrator came in more than they did! I think it could've helped with gripe #1 that I have. 

Otherwise, I did enjoy this. It's maybe not my TOP top favorite just because it's so bleak - I read a lot of bleak books but this was a new low for me, I won't lie. But it's also so good and worth the read. 

indulgentreads's review against another edition

4.5

This was the brutally existential, dark speculative book I needed. I read the whole thing in one 8 hour flight. A brilliant critique of capitalism that is personal, raw and visceral. McGhee knows how to write with devastating wit and vulnerability, writing a story that is speculative thriller, dark satire and poignant personal drama. I would read it again, and it is by far the best read I've had in a long while.