Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Expectation

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Expectation by Anna Hope

16 reviews

nenaveenstra's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

4.5

This book formed a beautiful portrait of three women throughout various stages of their lives. We follow them through love, lust and loss, while they worry about relationships and children and the state of the world. It is at the same time deeply relatable, as unbelievably foreign to me as a 23 year-old. The things they complain about while being able to afford a house of their own and impromptu trips to Greece is insane to me, but at the same time they discuss feminism and climate change with a sense of urgency that I feel just as much.

Aside from the themes, I was also incredibly moved by the writing in this novel - its poetic nature, and the emotion with which the most mundane situations are put to paper. It felt deeply personal, these little sneak peeks into these women's lives. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is willing to listen.

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ceedy's review

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challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

This is a story of 3 women in their 30s: one struggling with motherhood, one with her acting career, and another on her 4th try at IVF. They all lead messy lives with complex relationships while just trying to get through life.

I wish I'd loved this, no plot just women is usually something I'd love but unfortunately I found the characters to be hard to route for: they all did pretty sucky things but without being explored in enough depth for it to be somewhat sympathetic or even really that interesting. Don't get me wrong, normal people making slightly shitty decisions is something I'm absolutely here for, but for me that needs to come with a deeper look at why the characters are doing what they're doing, about their internal experience, their hurt and their growth. This just felt a little lacking for me and possibly a little surface level. Overall I just wish it had said more.

If the writing had been impactful or profound it mightve earned more points for me, but unfortunately I just don't think it had a lasting impression. However I do think this is one that has been unfairly compared to Sally Rooney far too often, as have seemingly the majority of contemporary literary fiction recently. I think this comparison sets the wrong expectations, and doesn't let it be its own thing. This isn't a bad book at all, it didn't work overly well for me but I enjoyed it enough while I was reading it and I think/hope it might work really well for others

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lilworm's review against another edition

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reflective slow-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

2.0

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schorlett's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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na_no's review

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reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

3.0

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contemporarymeepsie's review

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challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I struggled to like this book. All three of the main characters have flaws which is the point I guess but their flaws are irritating. Hannah is self-righteous, Lissa has tunnel vision, Cate is careless and selfish. All these are perfectly acceptable flaws but I don't feel like the reasons they state are very relatable or delved in to particularly well. They all feel like quite flat characters. I will give the author credit that although I didn't find two of her characters relatable I was hooked by one of the stories which meant that I wanted to keep reading. Nothing much happened but the pacing was okay.

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