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nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, and Death of parent
Moderate: Racism
mxbenjaminrose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Washington handles parent-child relationships, romantic/sexual partnerships, and even professional relationships with insight and gentleness. I don't think there's a single relationship with completely healthy communication, but how many of us can say the same about our own families? Mitsuki and Ahmad are the sweetest and my favorites of the ensemble.
The main characters, Benson and Mike, have a deeply unhealthy relationship dynamic, which is enthralling but hard to read. It's a weird feeling to read a not-quite-romance novel with two POVs and be deeply rooting for each of them, but not rooting for them to be together.
All in all, this is a unique, emotional story with vibrant backdrops, beautiful prose, and angsty inner dialogue, so if that's your thing you will likely love this!
Graphic: Homophobia and Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Racial slurs and Alcohol
sorcha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Grief, and Abandonment
Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Vomit
isobelk_18's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Fatphobia
agnesg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia
ceedy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, and Death of parent
kyrie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Death of parent
meganeorcx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer
krystalgaia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Everything about this book is quietly tender, quietly palming my cheeks like a bruise. It makes you think of what it means to love, to let go, and to change, and loving the fact that you have the option to let go and therefore change. Whether that’s for the better or worse, no one knows: what matters is there is always an option, a choice, and what’s more important is you choose and act on it.
Washington’s sentences were very clean and clear. He said a lot by not saying a lot. The dialogue was topnotch but this novel’s power lies in the quiet moments, the scenes where it seems like nothing is happening when, in fact, everything is happening. He doesn’t adorn his words and simply tells the story as it is.
As Ocean Vuong said it, “this book made me happy.”
Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Alcoholism
mulders's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
“That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn’t make them any less of a home. Just maybe not one for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn’t diminish the love. It just changes forms.”
reading memorial i kept forgetting i was reading a novel and not a memoir. there is nothing formulaic about it. it just flows, like life does. a character will do something or say something and i'll wonder what in their past could have led to it, knowing i will probably never learn, and only then will i remember that their past is not real because they haven't lived before they did on this page. it makes for an interesting read, however, this lack of insight and this unfamiliarity actually created a distance between me and the characters and i didn't feel as connected or as invested in their choices and their outcomes. i felt like i will never understand them completely- true for humans, but feels incomplete in a novel. while it was mostly an enjoyable read, it felt longer than it should have, and ultimately this is not a story i think will stick with me for a long time.
Moderate: Death of parent