Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

I fell in love with hope by Lancali

48 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. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Ableism, Car accident, Child abuse, Death of parent, Body shaming, Self harm, and Religious bigotry

theboxoffice's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my GOSH!! Did I LOVE this book, it was so heartbreaking and emotional and I can't help but think how much worse it could have been if Neo and C or two or more of them had Cystic Fibrosis. The ending though?? Wow 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm, Eating disorder, and Death of parent

kmarr's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

Heartbreaking story about love and growth and death

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, Grief, Medical content, Eating disorder, Bullying, Terminal illness, Suicide, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Child death

thebookkeepers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Wow. This book was such an emotional roller coaster and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you love SAD shit, this book delivers. Check the trigger warning because it isn’t for the faint of heart. The story takes place in a hospital and the characters are chronically ill teens who find hope, love, and happiness amongst the ugly parts of their lives. This is written entirely with prose and has a poetic cadence to it. I love the touch of magic realism within & the depth of character development we get. Sometimes the book moved slow and I wasn’t 💯 clear on some details, but these were mostly cleared up by the end. 

LGBTQ+ rep: bisexual main character, m/m side character romance, f/f romance 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Rape, Mental illness, Death of parent, Suicide, Self harm, Child death, and Chronic illness

alanakuni's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

this book is written for teenagers on tumblr in 2014 and i can say this because i was one. the plot is an afterthought to the pretty prose written by the author. truly every line is trying to be "quotable." by the time i realized i didn't care to finish this story i was already so close to the end i thought i might as well get there but i wouldn't recommend this to any adult. there are also some points that i feel were handled irresponsibly when discussing mental illness. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Violence, Death, Abortion, Self harm, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

xxzellazephirahxx's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical content, Suicide, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Vomit, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Self harm

lucyford's review

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The story was unlike any book I’ve ever read, and the characters were also really unique, especially the protagonist. What I loved most about this book was the ending, and all the wisdom the author shared about life and death, it was really comforting to hear. The only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because the writing isn’t really my style, and I found it really unnatural at times, especially in the dialogue, and also the jump between timelines got in the way of the story a bit at times (in my opinion). However, I still highly recommend reading this book for the perspectives and emotional rollercoaster that it is.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Gore, Suicide, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Grief, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Car accident, Abandonment, Drug use, Homophobia, Vomit, and Violence

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

2.75

For the first half of the book, I wasn’t too engaged apart from the backstories. The second half (primarily the 3rd quarter of the book) was EXCELLENT. Heart-wrenching, but excellent. My favorite character was definitely Neo, though I definitely have soft spots for both Sony and Coeur, and the story of Neo and Coeur always pulled at my heartstrings.

The storyline of both Sams was interesting, particularly in the latter half of the book.

Despite this being right up my alley, though, I couldn’t always vibe with the writing style. There consistently feels like there is a distance between the reader and the characters, including the narrator, which makes sense since their major character flaw is pushing people away, but it just isn’t to my preference. I also like really getting to know the main character, but they remain more vague until the end. You get echos of who they are, but they are usually more defined in what they are observing rather than what they are experiencing. I prefer the latter. It is well-written and has so many beautiful quotes (I love lyrical prose!), but that distance until maybe the second half of the book (for the most part since sometimes it is still present, though less so) disrupts the experience for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Death, Grief, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, Domestic abuse, Bullying, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death of parent and Rape

river_lockwood's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

This the most thought provoking book I have ever read. You really have to be in a good head space to read it,it grapels with such dark themes and makes you question your sanity and life itself, but over all it was an amazing book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Medical content, Vomit, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Violence

Minor: Rape

bri__'s review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This was very slow, but I understand that it needed to be slow for the depth of the characters to be sufficient. I cried towards the end. The writing is beautiful, but felt overly quotable at times. I also found that the characters didn't speak their age, and it was never actually specified how old they were. It was difficult to understand the situation when travelling between timelines and povs, which made the structure quite messy. Please check content warnings, this book is very heavy with dark topics.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Mental illness, Suicide, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Violence, Ableism, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Child abuse, Cursing, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol