Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Les Optimistes by Rebecca Makkai

47 reviews

sestout's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Abandonment, Sexual content, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Mental illness

Minor: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, War, and Police brutality

dominika_benmichael's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Infidelity, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Police brutality and Animal death

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Chronic illness, and Homophobia

Moderate: Grief, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

addie's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Homophobia, Death, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Drug use and Infidelity

Minor: Addiction, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Racism

froggydanny's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Homophobia

Moderate: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, and Infidelity

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Alcohol

kaela_arcuri's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, Abandonment, and Medical content

kimveach's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this book more than I did.  The dual timelines broke up the story too much for me.  I preferred the story set in 1980s Chicago to the one in the present day.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Cancer, Classism, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Ableism, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Violence, Vomit, Cursing, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Grief, Outing, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Blood, Body shaming, Dementia, Drug use, Excrement, Medical content, and Abandonment

zosiablue's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is how I was able to finally pinpoint that I feel grief in my chest and stomach. I haven't read anything this gutting in a long, long time. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Infidelity, and Addiction

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Infidelity, Medical content, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Self harm, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, and Grief

kdawgreads69's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

3.75

this book was so beautiful and i had such an attachment to the main characters, Yale and Fiona. however i feel like it didn’t live up to what alot of ppl said about it. it wasn't as soul crushing as people claimed it was. but it was a really good book. i've seen people compare it to A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and claim it was just as sad, but in my opinion it didn’t live up to that.

you learn on the back that essentially almost all of the characters are gonna die of AIDS so their deaths did not really come as that much of a surprise to me. Plus you didn’t really get that much depth on a lot of the characters that passed away, so i didn't feel really attached to them as i did with A Little Life. the only death that made me emotional was Yale’s because he’s really the only character you get a whole lot of depth on (granted it is from his perspective), and Fionas story was a little sad considering she had hardly anyone left; but despite that this book does not compare in my opinion.

do i think its a valuable, important read? yes i do. is it soul crushing? not really.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, Death, Grief, and Hate crime

Minor: Infidelity