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frenchtoast_n_books's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
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
It's hard to dissect everything I feel about this book but I do care for the characters, their journey, and their flaws. No one is perfect in this book and they have so many difficult things to navigate. It was a beautiful and tragic read.
I must say that there are quite a few content warnings to note, particularly suicidal ideation, self harm, abusive/toxic relationships, depression, anxiety, and manipulative behaviors. Be cautious going into this book, especially if suicidal ideation and self harm are strong triggers for you because it got to me at times.
This book is about how scary medical diagnoses can shake a person's psyche, especially when they don't seek support and mental health counseling. It shakes relationships and makes people go down dark paths. Then the journey must be made to find their way back into the light, and it can't be done alone. For that, this book is beautiful and I'm so glad I read it.
I didn't know much about Huntington's Disease going into this book, except the big things (it's genetic and makes you lose motor and cognitive functions), so this book helped me learn more about it and how families navigate having a member with advancing stages of the illness. It was a great way to get exposure without complicated medical explanations and jargon.
I also loved the religious representation with having many characters be Jewish. I learned much about the religion that I didn't know. I especially liked seeing the different scales of Jewish practices based upon how traditional or not a character was.
My only criticisms, apart from the lack of content warnings being made visible to the public on the synopsis page or something (which I know publishers are working on getting g better at), is that sometimes in Tovah's POV the author gets really descriptive and explains medical/religious things and other times there are no explanations at all. For example, Tovah talks about her heart rate but uses the medical abbreviation bpm (beats per minute) without explaining what it means. However. In another chapter Tovah will go in depth on blood circulation or something like that. The inconsistency was off-putting, though not completely distracting to me.
Overall, this book was a really great read!
I must say that there are quite a few content warnings to note, particularly suicidal ideation, self harm, abusive/toxic relationships, depression, anxiety, and manipulative behaviors. Be cautious going into this book, especially if suicidal ideation and self harm are strong triggers for you because it got to me at times.
This book is about how scary medical diagnoses can shake a person's psyche, especially when they don't seek support and mental health counseling. It shakes relationships and makes people go down dark paths. Then the journey must be made to find their way back into the light, and it can't be done alone. For that, this book is beautiful and I'm so glad I read it.
I didn't know much about Huntington's Disease going into this book, except the big things (it's genetic and makes you lose motor and cognitive functions), so this book helped me learn more about it and how families navigate having a member with advancing stages of the illness. It was a great way to get exposure without complicated medical explanations and jargon.
I also loved the religious representation with having many characters be Jewish. I learned much about the religion that I didn't know. I especially liked seeing the different scales of Jewish practices based upon how traditional or not a character was.
My only criticisms, apart from the lack of content warnings being made visible to the public on the synopsis page or something (which I know publishers are working on getting g better at), is that sometimes in Tovah's POV the author gets really descriptive and explains medical/religious things and other times there are no explanations at all. For example, Tovah talks about her heart rate but uses the medical abbreviation bpm (beats per minute) without explaining what it means. However. In another chapter Tovah will go in depth on blood circulation or something like that. The inconsistency was off-putting, though not completely distracting to me.
Overall, this book was a really great read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Toxic relationship
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