Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev

81 reviews

seaschells's review

emotional funny hopeful 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicide, and Rape

kaleys23's review

emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Blood, Physical abuse, Rape, and Emotional abuse

mizz_destiny's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Suicide

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual assault, and Rape

trippalli's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

What starts as a usual love story becomes intervention with the parents romances and marriages, some arranged, and the history of women disimpowerment, emotional abuse, arranged marriages

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Injury/Injury detail

hannahleewhite's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism and Rape

arcookson's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Rape

thaliareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful tense 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

5.0

Sonali Dev has done it again, turning a Jane Austen classic into an entirely unique modern retelling. While it is apparent that the plot is mimicking Persuasion, it doesn't feel verbatim or as simple as a retelling, it feels like something new. 

I loved the idea of the celebrity and pro cooking contest and I enjoyed seeing Ashna work through the trauma she's grown into with the death of her father and the absence of her mother. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, and Panic attacks/disorders

This book does have a very high amount of content warnings. Ashna's mother has had a very hard life dealing with bigotry, classism, and sexism from her father first and then the man she was forced to marry. He was emotionally abusive as well as physically abusive leading to domestic abuse and even marital rape. Ashna's father struggled with alcoholism his entire life and eventually that compounded and led to his eventual suicide leaving Ashna feeling the grief of the loss as well as the blame for not being able to prevent it, leading to the panic attacks she sometimes suffers when trying to cook. There are some mentions and discussions of how Rico lost his parents in a car accident when he was young.

harperhoney's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Addiction, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

Minor: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

frantically's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

2.5

If this had been marketed as a literary piece about mothers and daughters and loss and reconciliation, I would've liked it a lot more. But it wasn't. And it didn't even start like that.

We start with the typical rom-com elements, second-chance romance, meet-cutes, all the good stuff. When we get introduced to Shobi, I immediately think "Damn, I wish this book was about her." I spoke too early because in some way it did — and thus the rom-com was over.

This is such a heavy (and such a slowww) book. The different plots (Ashna & Rico and Ashna & Shobi and Shobi's past) didn't feel like  they fit into the same book, which made the whole thing feel all over the place.

Espically Ashna and Rico's story just didn't make me feel anything (which is bad in a supposed romance book). Most of the time I even thought there was a better love interest for Rico. We didn't have nearly enough development for their relationship.

I loved the first book in the series but after this one, I don't think I'll be continuing — too many surprises for me. I'll leave this at 2.5⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Infidelity, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion

alexkudej's review

emotional 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Child abuse