Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Guncle by Steven Rowley

27 reviews

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-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

3.5

I truly loved Steven Rowley’s “The Celebrants” so wanted to give this one a try upon recommendation from a friend. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as The Celebrants but kept me busy for a few days. While the kids were delightful, I think I missed some of the charm that their gay uncle (“Guncle”) was supposed to bring to the table. His life felt a bit difficult to relate to and disconnected from the storyline happening. Nonetheless, a nice story about grief and finding/discovering joy in unlikely places. There was a lot of heart in this book and a fair amount of laugh out loud moments, but I wasn’t as invested in this story as I would have liked to be!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Cancer, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug use

_serena_'s review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-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

I loved the humorous take on loss and grief. It’s done well and tastefully. Patrick’s sarcasm and humor are so lighthearted. It really helps in tackling these big topics like parental loss, romantic partner loss, grief, suicidal ideation, loss of innocence. 
Patrick’s love for his niece and nephew is immense! But I love that this was as much of a healing journey for Patrick as it was for the children. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

erikagibson126's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, and Car accident

Moderate: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It took a couple of chapters for me to get into it but I’m glad I stuck with it. This book was funny and unique and had such tremendous character growth throughout the course of the summer. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Car accident

Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Car accident, and Terminal illness

Minor: Addiction, Medical content, and Vomit

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Cancer, Confinement, Drug abuse, Racism, Alcohol, Drug use, Terminal illness, Addiction, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Abandonment, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Outing, Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

mjpens's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Death

Minor: Addiction, Car accident, and Suicidal thoughts

znvisser's review

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

I was expecting some sort of character study with emotional highs and lows and compared to that this was a bit… smoothed out? Somewhat ironically, the plot has a typical Hollywood film structure with out-of-nowhere twists and an unnecessary enemy, except each problem blew over quickly without actually  being completely resolved? The historical family dynamics were underexplored while they could have added some depth. There were some profound moments with the children which I enjoyed but it seemed mostly written just to be tied up in a nice bow. This wasn’t my cup of tea but probably a satisfying feel-good story for those who do enjoy such pacing.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Medical content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, and Car accident

marpaige's review

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Terminal illness, Addiction, and Car accident

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

atoft's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.5

The Guncle is not a bad book, but for me it rarely managed to produce any sort of spark and ended up just being fine.

Generally, the book takes a lighter tone which was a nice break from the heavier queer fiction I've read recently. Unfortunately, it feels like it's trying really hard to be funny, and only occasionally manages. The titular gay uncle, Patrick, is charged with looking after his young niece and nephew for the summer, with supposedly hilarious results. He spends most of the book talking to them in a way that no real person would talk to children, filled with quippy asides and obscure references. He's saying things not because they make any sense in context but because they are funny for the reader, or at least they're meant to be. That most of the cultural references are completely lost on me probably doesn't help.

The book does have some more dramatic and emotional threads to it, in the loss of the kids' mother and Patrick's friend, Sara, and in Patrick dealing with grief from the death of his boyfriend Joe four years earlier. The latter is the most effective, especially a scene in which

Patrick reads an old letter he wrote after Joe's death

. We see a more authentic version of Patrick and his grief is very real. That said, we don't get much of a sense of who Joe was as a person beyond his role as a prop for this story. Patrick's struggles with the loss of Joe tie into his attempts to help the kids process their own grief. Since we see the kids entirely from the outside, rather than understanding what they're feeling, these scenes end up being more about Patrick's awkwardness than anything deeper. At the same time, their father's struggle with addiction in the wake of his wife's illness seems to be mainly a contrivance to get the children to stay with their uncle, rather than an issue the book actually has interest in exploring.

The majority of the book has us tagging along with the trio throughout their summer, exploring Patrick's extravagant home (the reward for a successful TV career from which he's now hiding) and trying out various fun activities in the pretty but constraining setting of Palm Springs. Along the way he invents ridiculous "Guncle Rules" in an attempt to teach the kids important lessons, such as the value of brunch. There are a couple of other subplots, mainly around Patrick regaining the confidence to continue his acting career, and his growing flirtation with an up-and-coming young TV star. A brief moment of tension is brought about when

an earthquake strikes Palm Springs

, but as with most of the other story threads the book doesn't seem to have much interesting to do with it. A clash with Patrick's sister Clara (not to be confused with Sara) over whether or not he's an appropriate carer for the children is another example of a story beat that the author seemingly doesn't know what to do with. She threatens to take him to court, but he easily talks her down and she seems to essentially give up. Patrick seems to chalk this up to her discovering her husband has been cheating on her, and this along with her comically exaggerated hatred of the patriarchy makes the character feel like a bit of an unfortunate caricature.

Reading The Guncle is not an unpleasant experience; it means spending some time in a sunny and relaxing place where nothing of much importance happens. But it's a story that too often favours fun over sincerity, and whose characters often feel as hollow as one of Patrick's colourful pool floats.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts