Reviews with content warning for Dementia - Gespenster

Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

Gespenster by Dolly Alderton

122 reviews

katjayorke's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Do not read if you’ve just been through a breakup! Very triggering

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emmagalt's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

1.5

Just a frustratingly horrible character. Odious about other women and the joys of girl hood, especially horrible to her mum.

puts all the energy in the world to "understanding" her dad and patronising her mum about it, but never taking any energy to understand her mum in the same way.

Such a smug analysis thinking she is right on a million topics, when she would likely be dreadful at dealing with them. Horrible friend all round.
The writing annoyed me even more. This is just a rip off of "Everything I know about love" but without the self-awareness that the main character could seem privileged and shitty.
Basically, if you like Dolly Alderton writing about how great Dolly Alderton is, whilst simultaneously slagging off women and creating 2D, dull men, then you'll be grand. Otherwise, I'd skip this.

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madelynowil's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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ceedy's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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_georgiasmith's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-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

5.0

Where do I even begin with Ghosts by Dolly Alderton? I brought this book away with me for a flight and I could not put it down.

So much of the story resonated with me and I feel I’ve read this book at the right time in my life. I loved the writing style of the author, and i felt Dolly truly captured the experience of modern women. But what I felt more closely connected to was Nina’s journey with her father’s dementia. This was detailed so accurately and really struck a chord with me as my granda also suffered with dementia.

I enjoyed the mix of characters in this book - especially Lola who is just fabulous. The author excellently highlights how we change through the different stages of our lives, feeling nostalgia for our past self (and our friends’ past selves) as well as the anxiety of being “left behind”.

Overall I loved Ghosts. It was so engaging, relatable, funny and emotional at times. I will 100% return to this time and time again.

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sheridannay's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

3.25

Grim. Which I guess is a success if the point of the book is to make the reader empathise with just how horrific our current culture of dating is. Other than that, I'm not sure what the message of the book is...

There's lots of things I could nitpick about this book,

like how horribly the main character thinks about her friends who are married/mothers/settled down, and only reflects on her way of thinking when she sees her friend's naked body and notices the physical differences that childbirth has had on her (?). Not to mention the spontaneous unprotected sex?! Not in a prudish way, but I was shocked that the author didn't even acknowledge the risks of unprotected sex without any conversation of consent or sexual history/health.

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