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belleanndthebook's review
dark
reflective
sad
3.0
After a few months worth of distance from this book. I can finally elaborate on my feelings towards it: This book creates a scenario with one set of expectations and then pivots and explores other themes almost entirely.
This book sells itself, both in the synopsis and the prologue, as a book that explores how knowing the date of one’s death shapes one’s life, a book thematically about—what I will attempt to summarize in one word as—mortality. However, immediately when we jump forward to the first sibling's perspective, the book begins to centrally explore another theme: grief. The siblings’ father dies, triggering the characters to begin thinking about death and thus begins the events of the story. Initially, the addition of this theme makes sense due to the proximity of mortality and death (and thus grief). However, the rest of the book very quickly becomes very repetitive.
The lives of the siblings become increasingly shaped mainly by grief as opposed to exploring how they grapple with their mortality. All of the siblings essentially struggle against their mortality and die in the exact same way (self-sabotage and recklessness) , and, until the literal climactic conclusion of the book, no other possibility of dealing with mortality is portrayed.
Thus, a book that I picked up expecting it to explore how people live their lives in the face and in spite of their inevitable mortality, actually turned out to be a book exploring grief, death, and dying over and over again without much meaningful variety. Don’t get me wrong, there was some merit in the siblings' stories individually and in the other themes explored; however, I think that many are going to find this book disappointing because the set-up in no way matched the pay-off.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Hate crime, and Addiction
Minor: Homophobia
rosalie362819's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, Mental illness, Hate crime, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Suicide and Animal cruelty
Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Genocide, and Eating disorder
rstaples95's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Beautiful book. Just really emotionally draining in my opinion. Took me super long to get through despite loving it because it has quite a bit of trauma related plot that was just very heavy. Overall message and book as a whole was very moving
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Homophobia, Hate crime, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
cammiem8's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.0
I read this for a book club and couldn’t help but read ahead. The first section about the life and death of the youngest sibling in the family is the strongest emotionally, though there are things to think about throughout the book. The third section is the weakest. The author also uses a lot of very strange and seemingly out of place sexual descriptions, which might be a turn off for readers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, and Suicide
Moderate: Hate crime, Medical content, Police brutality, Alcoholism, Terminal illness, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
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