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cicadalove's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness
kirstym25's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Bullying
biobeetle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Medical content, Infertility, and Chronic illness
paradicsomleves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Confinement, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Sexual content, Infertility, and Bullying
serenspace's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Medical content
m_colls's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Toxic friendship
lauren625's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death
Minor: Medical content
lotties_corner's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Medical content
rwxtd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
Honestly I found this whole book to be kind of a drag to get through. It's too bad, because I think the premise is interesting. In general, I really like stories that focus on characters and their relationships and how they change over time or react to different situations, so this book should've been right up my alley. Unfortunately, I mostly just found it really, really annoying.
I think it's mostly the writing style. It's very casual, as if someone is recounting stories from their childhood- because that's mostly what the book is, it is Kathy recounting stories from her childhood or about her past. But she doesn't tell these stories in an interesting way, so it just feels like someone I don''t know rambling on about other people I don't know. I have no reason to get invested in Kathy or any of these other characters. I don't know or care about any of these people. It felt like being in a room with a bunch of people who all went to high school together reminiscing about "the good old days" and forgetting you're in the room. There were also some more specific writing quirks that absolutely drove me up a wall. Primary example: any time Kathy is about to start a new anecdote, she starts with "it reminded me of that time when blank happened", or something along those lines. It felt like the narrator was fishing for the reader to ask what happens next. I absolutely can't stand when people do that. Just tell me the story if it's relevant, don't hint "oh there's a story here...haha...wouldn't it be funny if someone asked me to tell it" no! I hate this! I hate it in real life and I hate it here! Stop being passive aggressive and say what you mean already!
I think that's part of why this book super didn't work for me. The characters were very often extremely passive aggressive, there was a lot of performing and dancing around what you mean and putting on a show for someone else's benefit, it was entirely exhausting and frequently very mean-spirited. I guess that was probably part of the point? And I almost feel bad critiquing it because they are children for most of it, and children in stressful circumstances are not known for making stellar decisions, and that's fine. But it's really hard to feel for or care about these characters when well over half the book is them just being nasty to each other, and if the main focus of the book is the characters and their interactions and reactions to their horrible situation, it just makes for a rather unpleasant reading experience.
The characterization was consistent, I'll give it that. There were really strong, identifiable and distinct characters. I just didn't like or care about any of them. I didn't feel like I had a reason to keep reading other than "I have to for class".
It's an interesting premise, with very clear and unique characters. I'm not going to say it was bad, because I don't think it was, I think it just really super didn't work for me personally because I found the characters and writing style deeply irritating and the book didn't do enough to make me care about them despite that.
Graphic: Medical content
eva_vva's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Infertility, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Terminal illness, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Medical content
Moderate: Gaslighting, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Bullying
Minor: Cursing, Pregnancy, Blood, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Infidelity