Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

As irmãs Blue + brindes by Coco Mellors

4 reviews

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • 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

It’s been a long time since a book made me ugly cry. About connection, longing, loss, fear, and family, this book was beautifully crafted by someone who intimately understands the human condition. As the oldest sister of five siblings, I connected with Avery but there were components of the other sisters that resonated as well. The shared grief and the different ways that each sister tried to manage that grief was heartbreakingly real. I will be thinking about the Blue sisters for a long, long time. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

stephrand's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mbgibson825's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gwenswoons's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective sad tense medium-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

3.75

This was good — it came to me as part of a monthly book subscription I have with a literary fiction-ish bent, and it definitely fit that bill. The prologue immediately captured me; I love a complicated-family saga (or a complicated family saga, true either way), and I loved the immediate characterizations of the different sisters.

I struggled at points to stay really engaged with the book. I actually love that it basically does nothing but watch our main characters reckon with grief, but to my reading there were so many moments that I felt could have been crafted ever so slightly more specifically: specific repetition done either less often or more intentionally; inconsistencies of voice that felt again less intentional than they might be (particularly in the back and forth American/British-ness of certain characters and relationships); a good number of typos, oddly. I don’t often think about this stuff but I guess I felt that as good as this is, there was an even more special book within reach and it felt a little disappointing even as I thought it was good in many ways. The choice to write in multiple POVs — one I often do love — felt like it caused   the sisters to be deliberately kept separate for so much of the book; perhaps why I felt the prologue and epilogue were some of the most effective moments in the novel.

Anyway — it’s good, not (for me) great, and I’m not sure I would read more by CM. It’s sad but without big lingering impact, I think, which breaks my heart a little bit since there’s potentially so much intense and powerful stuff in here about family, addiction, grief.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings