Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Counting by 7's

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

25 reviews

reclusivebookslug's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad 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

4.0

I read this book years ago (maybe in middle school) and although I remember it being impactful for me, I didn't remember many details of what it was actually about. I also wanted to reread this because a close friend once told me that the main character reminded her of me.

After rereading, I think the reason I felt so connected with this character, and perhaps why my friend noticed similarities between us, is that Willow is heavily coded as autistic (or some flavor of neurodivergent, at least). I didn't know then, but I am also autistic.

Sometimes implying characters to be neurodivergent but not explicitly saying so is annoying to me, but in this case, I almost prefer it to be unstated. Firstly because Willow has a savant-level memory and level of intelligence for a 12-year-old, and the trope of autistic savants is pretty played by now. Sure, they exist, but they're not the norm for autistics (even those of us considered "high-functioning") and the conflation of autism with the trope of the strange genius can be harmful to the community. (It is accurate to point out that many undiagnosed masked autistic children, especially autistic girls and people of color, are often considered "gifted" in school.) Secondly, because it makes Dell's evaluation of her as a super-special one-of-a-kind kid seem very silly, because autism is relatively common and he is literally a school counselor. Writing her as neurodiverse but not labeling her as such allows both autistic and non-autistic readers to relate to different parts of her character while not perpetuating stereotypes.

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saucywench813's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

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gurnoor's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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? No

3.75

It was a cute read and I loved the writing and the character personalities, But I didn’t like the implausible and infuriating ending, the Asian stereotype, dell could have been redeemed more in the book, and sometimes I loved how smart Willow is but other times it left unsure about her character because she acts like a robot.Overall I recommend reading it.

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rishireads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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depressedswiftiereader's review against another edition

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This book triggered me.

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atamano's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

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libraryfrog's review against another edition

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2.25

I gave it an extra .25 because I enjoyed the writing style. However, it gets my traditional this book is incredibly insensitive and potentially harmful rating of 2 base stars. I started to realize it around when “Indian princess” was used with just zero acknowledgement of what that means and how harmful it is. And then it was like oh, yeah, there’s a lot of that happening. Body shaming, cultural appropriation and stereotyping, a weird approach to having what seems to obviously be an autistic character, etc. also D is creepy af. So yeah.. just so much old white lady trying to be relevant without doing the work stuff.

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