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readbycarina's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Cancer, Toxic friendship, Child death, Grief, Hate crime, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Homophobia, Classism, Abandonment, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Mental illness, Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Terminal illness
aliciae08's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The writing style of Ferrante is detailed and can be rich. However, it just went on.
There were really tragic parts that you could feel:
- Tina
- Elena’s mother and their growing relationship
- Dede and Elsa’a clear neglect
But overall, I couldn’t stand Elena. I found her to be such an unreliable narrator so self-absorbed and playing the victim in the same way she attributes Nino to doing.
There is also no clear resolution in
Moderate: Suicide, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, and Physical abuse
yumaa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Death of parent
Moderate: Terminal illness, Kidnapping, and Child death
zezeki's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Infidelity, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Terminal illness
quickermorequickly's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ferrante does unsettling very, very well. Reading this series (as well as The Days of Abandonment) is like taking stiff shots of very different, equally strong emotions, and then realizing you're drunk, and stumbling through a sinister amusement park. In a good way, I swear!
I found Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay and The Story of the Lost Child to be less enchanting than the earlier installments of the series, if only because I haven't yet been through most of those life stages yet and so the pings of deep recognition or identification were less frequent. But I think the more time I spend on this planet seeing sad and strange things happen, the more I will recognize.
Hats off to Ann Goldstein for this very long project of translation.
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Toxic friendship, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Terminal illness
Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Outing
lena04's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Grief and Kidnapping
Minor: Infidelity, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Homophobia