Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - I fell in love with hope

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

I fell in love with hope by Lancali

6 reviews

tyghe_bright's review

emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

From the outset, I knew I'd love this book, even if the story was imperfect. The *writing*. The prose in this little book is STUNNING. It's made me catch my breath several times. The writing is impressionistic, which I *love*, but may not be for folks who prefer narrative plot-driven novels.1

The prose remains strong throughout, though not quite as strong when she's focused on plot. And the plot often suffers from "that's not how it works" with unrealistic portrayals of life in a hospital. Something the author knows about, because she's struggled with autoimmune disease. I also really felt the author's youth. It feels a little immature at times.

There's a "twist" about the narrator which is handled a little clumsily. It's hinted at heavily, and then explained explicitly, where it would have been better left more open.

Some reviews say it needed to be more accurate and realistic... but I disagree. If I were her editor, I would have encouraged her to go MORE abstract and fantastical. Her work shines most when she focuses on emotion and sensation.

Overall, it's a beautiful, if slightly imperfect, book with lovely, tender, tragic relationships. I still recommend it and will look for more by Lancali.

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addssubract's review

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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

5.0

i cried

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erica_reads_things's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.0

Lancali is going to go so far with her writing, I can tell. This was a beautifully done story. Though the writing style is not what I typically gravitate to, I can appreciate the beautiful, poetic themes and how well it works with the story she is telling. Her final note really hit me, and I'm grateful that I got to read something so close and personal to someone. It's an honor to be let into someone's life and emotions in that way.

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defeating_my_demons's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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boyscoutsreject's review

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emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Sony and Cœur, I fucking bow down to you.

I've seen reviews of people crying throughout the book but for me, it was fast and hard. Cried about 8 times in the last 150 pages. I regret nothing.

I was a bit sceptical about the ending - that plot twist didn't really sit right with me. All the same, it was a beautiful read. In love with the writing style. I read this a lot slower than I normally read because I actually had to take time to think about the deeper meaning of every other sentence.

If nothing else, live out of spite.

normally don't add content warnings but this one really had the need for them. a very loaded book but it deals with all of them well.

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lolajh's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

No amount of knowledge of how sad this book is could have ever prepared me for the just utter hurt I am feeling over this book (which means it is just so very good). Going into it I knew it was about sick kids and love and death but i can’t even explain the tears that I shed so continuously throughout reading this.

Feeling love and loss myself just reading this, getting attached to these beautiful characters and then greiving them? Fuck me.

One of the letdowns of this book was unfortunately Sam, the main character. As a narrator, they were impeccable; their words and observations and thoughts about the world were so beautiful, if a little dramatic at times, but as a character, i was just so unable to connect with them. They are rather emotionless and one-dimensional,

and yes, of course this is due to them not being human, but that aspect I would have so much rathered not be in the book. Plus making them non-human and genderless/nonbinary ticks me off a bit. I hate that their whole character only ended up being this non-human soul of a creature. The plot line was so predictable, because they so frequently act alien-like in the book, so it was hard not to think they weren’t human, which made the reveal underwhelming, and I overall just really disliked this element of the book. And their whole character arc I felt was just them and Hikari’s romance, and so much of Sam’s story just seemed to be revolves around other people, like their ex-lover, then Hikari, and then their friends. I still don’t really know them as a character independent from other people, which is something that definitely impacts my enjoyment of this book.

and compared to the absolute angel cast of side characters that are so fully fleshed-out with beautiful stories, having Sam as the main character makes the story fall quite flat, whereas if the book was just about Hikari, Neo, Sony, and Coeur (the absolute best side characters that carried this book and are the reason I still rated the book high), it would have been a wonderful story of intricate characters that definitely didn’t need Sam to be among them.

Out of the group, Sony has to be my favourite. An absolute sunshine of a character who has my whole heart. Her range and shift of emotions throughout the book, her connections and relationships with different people, all had me absolutely yearning for her pov to be in the book instead of or in addition to Sam. She’s perfect and I love her. I loved seeing her happy and positive, not only because that made me happy, but also because of how it shows how you can be sick, chronically ill, and still happy, and have a fulfilling life. Her not allowing having only one fucking lung to stop her from wanting to do the things she wants was so beautiful. I will eternally love Sony, 10000/10 character.

And goddamn NEO. He means absolutely everything to me. His experience with his illnesses, particularly his anorexia, was heartbreaking, as all eating disorder rep ends up being.

It ending up being something that was self-induced so that he could be free from his dad was very sad, and, whilst very realistic for people with chronic illnesses, I do wish he had of healed from his anorexia rather than what did happen, or at least it not being portrayed as something that was his fault. I do feel like a lot of eating disorder media ends up in the characters dying because their organs are withered away, but if he was able to live? To recover from it? That would have been so beautiful to see, but I understand the author in no way owes their audience a portrayal of eating disorders like this. I guess, most times when I see eating disorders represented, most of the time I wish they weren’t, because they are always portrayed onto a character that is skinny, and withering away, when a lot of eating disorders, such as atypical anorexia, don’t have this stereotypical “look”

Neo had good days and bad days (which is definitely something so crucial to add when portraying illnesses, mental or physical, so I loved this), but I do feel like the hospital was hardly supporting him. They seemed fine with him eating basically nothing except an apple in a day and basically just let him get worse, which had me so confused. His friends were wonderful, but I feel like the fact that they were the ones getting him to eat more than the doctors at the hospital seemed weird. And him only getting a feeding tube towards the end? I feel like he was not at all getting the help he needed. Going through an eating disorder is such an isolating experience, as I myself have discovered, so Neo not having the support system he needed and the right help makes me so emotional, and so sad for him that he has that. I just don’t understand why he was so neglected by the hospital.

And Hikari! Seperate from the romance with Sam that I honestly wasn’t the biggest fan of, Hikari’s experience with sickness, especially her depression, was just so heartbreakingly relatable and realistic for what so many people, especially kids these days are experiencing. Again though, I feel like the hospital wasn’t putting her needs in mind at all. Every meal she was given a knife, and whilst it was plastic, she still tried to use it upon herself, so that is just so odd that they would give a self harmer a tool to continue doing it. Do the people at this hospital know nothing? I still loved Hikari, because in no way was this her fault, but I do just think this hospital is so neglectful to it’s patients. Anyways, here’s my fav Hikari quotes from best girl:

“People glorify youth. Maybe that’s why [Hikari] strays from hers. They see it as a period of freedom, sex, and stupid decisions. These are the best years of your life. Enjoy them. You’ll be grateful you did. Say that to a child and watch them be reduced to a fruit, ripe, and ready for harvest. You’ll be grateful you did–that is a regretful argument made by those who look in the mirrors and see rot. This is what comes of it. People who don’t believe one could be so numb that even their disease doesn’t hurt enough.”

“So she feels her pain, her loneliness, the excruciating feeling that she is dying, but at once not dying soon enough. She grapples with her guilt and her fear and her love for me. They torture her until she can no longer bear it and must feel the pain with blood. When I stop her, she resents me. She resents me for keeping her alive. Then, it begins again, till all that’s left of her to torture is her mind thinning away with her body.”

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