Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

No estás en la lista by Alison Espach

232 reviews

emotional funny hopeful sad medium-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: Complicated

I loved this one! The suicide and infertility talk at the start was hard, but there were so many hilarious moments that kept me going.

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is full of interesting characters. Each of these characters represents different stages of life. They have all experienced loss of some kind. All of these characters had to learn to live after these losses and changes in their lives. Death is a huge theme throughout this book but it is used in a way to show that life can be beautiful. 

Each person has their flaws but that makes these characters human and relatable. I enjoyed seeing how these characters interacted throughout the story. I loved how Phoebe was this total stranger but everyone felt more comfortable telling her everything than to actually talk to their friends and family. It shows how we get caught up in our masks and don't want people to think differently of us if we told them the truth. 

This is a great book to add to your TBR but there are a lot of topics that can be triggering for some readers. The author did a wonderful job with these topics but they can still be hard for someone. These characters are human and have human experiences.

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emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was an interesting one. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be.

Phoebe picks the Cornwall Inn as her happy place. She's there the weekend of Lila's wedding, not as a guest but for a very particular reason.

This book deals with a lot of sensitive topics and I can't recall if there were TWs, but some of these include
suicide attempt, suicidal ideation, infertility, infidelity, depression, mental health.


While at the inn, her path crosses with Lila, a frantic bride who wants everything to be perfect during her wedding week. They keep bumping into one another, and Lila is able to be honest with Phoebe in a way that she can't seem to be with the other wedding people.

In fact, it's not just Lila that finds a comfort level with Phoebe; she becomes the sounding board for quite a number of questions. Including Gary, the groom she doesn't know is the groom when she propositions him, Jim who is the dead wife's brother, and Patricia, Lila's day-drinking mother.

This book did definitely make me think about what so many people go through on a daily basis: the constant pretending and putting on a facade to fit the needs of the situation.

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The beginning of this book was shocking and a bummer and almost put me off of continuing, but I figured it had to get better with all of the glowing reviews. And it did. It was so insightful about people. I felt like my own flaws and quirks and personality were being expertly laid out in some aspect of each character. I’m going to be thinking about this one for awhile. It made me laugh out loud and also made me tear up, but it was beautiful. Take care with the great detail about suicide and depression that are outlined. 
I liked that the love story was left open-ended and implied because the journey was really about her.

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emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

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dark funny hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional hopeful medium-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: Yes

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

This was a wonderful read. How you are meant to separate The Performance of Who You Are from The Person You Actually Are is something I think about a lot - something I never thought about when I was younger - but seems to become more urgent the older I get. The main character's journey through this question is what makes the book what it is - that and the many genuine and grounded moments of humanity throughout. 

Read if you enjoy books that are kind of depressing and kind of hopeful and full of messy people. Skip if you don't enjoy books with unlikeable characters. Also mind the trigger warnings on this one.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

 I liked it more than I expected. 

Throughout the first few chapters, I wanted to smack the protagonist upside the head, but her life already did that. Repeatedly. 

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