Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee

2 reviews

amiegold's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-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

Lucia is a beautiful, optimistic and talented woman who finds herself struggling unexpectedly with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  We find ourselves following how she copes with this disease throughout her life through her eyes, as well as the eyes of the people around her.  We hear about a period of time from her sister Miranda's point of view, then weave back to experience it from Lucia's perspective.  This layered perspective opened my eyes to how easy it looks to outsiders to just get healthy, and how difficult it is for the sufferer to even identify what in their life is wrong.  

We traveled from New York to Switzerland to Equador and back again.  I appreciated the cultural accuracy that the author portrayed, it felt like I visited and got to know these places myself.  

This book accurately conveys the fear, sorrow and grief that comes along with mental illness, both for the sufferers and the caretakers.  Ultimately, it is a love story of sisters, mothers and daughters and family.  It was a beautiful journey.

I only removed a half star for the detailed sexual exploits and infidelity of Lucia's partner, which I really did not feel was necessary for the story and took away from the intimacy I otherwise felt with the character.  
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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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

2.5

Everything Here is Beautiful is not a book that I would typically enjoy. It’s incredibly slow paced and deeply character centric. I’m torn between feeling that it was actually a very long book or if it only felt endless. I can appreciate Everything Here is Beautiful for what it is – a dive into sharing the struggles of someone who has a mental illness but wants to live a normal life. But I can’t say I enjoyed the book.

This book is a good fit for some readers – those who prefer serious books with complicated relationships and an emphasis on motherhood will likely enjoy it. I will warn that the book’s description is a bit misleading. On picking up Everything is Here Beautiful, I expected to read a story of sisters, of two parallel lives. This book is very much about Lucia. Intellectually you can infer bits and pieces about Miranda’s existence, but only in so much as it revolves around Lucia and their relationship not with each other, but with Lucia’s mental illness.

I’m always ready to pounce on a book that has a hyperbolic or otherwise problematic representation of mental health conditions. In this respect, I think Everything Here is Beautiful did a good job depicting a life and how a person can choose not to be defined by their mental illness even while it tries to control them. I personally have no experience with Lucy’s kind of mental illness – in the book, the doctors disagree on her diagnosis, but “bipolar” and “schizophrenia” are both tossed around – so I can’t relate as to whether or not it’s an accurate experience, but from an outsiders perspective, it feels good and respectful.

Everything Here is Beautiful has an interesting story and good research. I appreciate the Ecuadorian immigrant representation, the Chinese-American representations from two sides, the mental health representation. This is a good book for the right person. It’s a serious, slow-paced slice of life. If that sounds good to you, I recommend picking it up!
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