Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

15 reviews

divergentpixie's review

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Loved this. Was so real and the characters made me happy.
I love the friend group and Sam’s dad.
I felt like I was really there with Sam, reliving everything.
The writing is so well done. 
The ending was wrapped up so nicely, there were no questions left unanswered.

-autistic rep
-queer
-found family
-ghosts?
 
*homophobia, assault, transphobia

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Biphobia, Transphobia, Stalking, Physical abuse, Hate crime, and Child death

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

sammy_nor's review

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Transphobia and Grief

Minor: Deadnaming

emmiej's review

challenging emotional informative medium-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

dododenise's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-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

3.0

I took a chance at reading a mystery, knowing that in the past those plots don’t work for me. Sadly, this one also didn’t.
Seeing a nonbinary autistic mc is what made me pick up this book in the first place. I loved Sam and the other characters. They were wonderful and pulled me through this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Mental illness, Biphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Ableism, Outing, and Grief

Minor: Car accident and Cancer

emily_mh's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

There wasn’t anything I hated about this book but I also don’t feel super enthusiastic about it having read it. I’ve broken the book down into its three core elements: 

The mystery. As with all mysteries, this consists of two parts: the investigation and the solution. The investigation was pretty lacklustre. Sam and their friends don’t really figure out anything beyond what’s already obvious. I also feel like a mystery should be peppered with mini reveals as the characters tease out the red herrings, but because of the lack of investigation, there weren’t really any. Because the mystery is the driving force of this book, it didn’t feel driven at all, but kind of wandery. To add to that, the solution was underwhelming. This was because I didn’t really know the suspects beyond surface level archetypal stuff, so none of them were compelling characters. 

The MC. I think Sam was the best part of the book. I loved the autism rep in them especially; it was woven in well with the narrative. They also seemed very real in their trauma responses, especially regarding their belief that they would die prematurely. Sam’s development with regard to their PTSD wasn’t rushed or unnatural, and I loved seeing them be able to find a place in which to belong. Having said all that, because I didn’t like the writing style of this book, and the book is written in first-person, the poor writing style became entwined with Sam’s narrative voice. This was a struggle. 

The romance. The attraction here wasn’t signposted very well, so I didn’t find the romantic connection between Sam and Shep believable. I honestly just wish there hadn’t been a romance at all. 

P.S. I’m not sure how good the adoption rep is here, but I do know that there might be an issue in the fact that we are not given any information on Sam’s background before they are in foster care at age 7. 

Rep: autistic queer ace nonbinary MC, aroace Afro-Latino SC, queer Latina LI, Vietnamese-American SC, bisexual SC, Jewish SC, sapphic Black SC, questioning SC 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Hate crime, Transphobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Self harm, Biphobia, and Gun violence

Minor: Classism, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Suicide, Alcohol, Car accident, Racism, Alcoholism, Addiction, War, Grief, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Ableism

Major: queerphobia, medical emergency, anaphylactic shock Moderate: migraines Minor: foster system, loss of a loved one, drowning

thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition

5.0

Okay, welcome to one of my favorite reads of 2023! Seriously, I loved this book so much. I don't have the words. It was just everything. Also, wasn't expecting a murder mystery but I'm here for it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Homophobia, Death, Transphobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Stalking

Minor: Outing

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Child death, Hate crime, Transphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Blood

mariebrunelm's review

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

After a series of meh books I was doubting my ability to fall in love with a book. Thankfulky Maya MacGregor had my back! 

If you're looking for something to read after watching Heartstopper and you've already read all of Alice Oseman's books, look no further! This book has STELLAR representation. It is darker than Oseman's books because of the heavier emphasis on trauma, but in the background it's a story about queer joy, and healthy boundaries, and respect.

We meet Sam Sylvester, who's just moved in with their dad in a new city, ready for a new beginning. We know from early on that something terrible happened to Sam, triggering the move. But they're determined to leave it as much behind as possible, and focus on their passions. Or obsessions. One of these is the recording of "half-lives" - fragments of life from teenagers who died before reaching their 19th birthdays... A date which is coming soon for Sam. What they hadn't expected was that one of the teens had lived in Sam's new house... and died there.

This book was a-mazing. Such a gift. I didn't want it to end but I couldn't stop reading either. It was just full of love and even though some dark things happen, it made my heart full. If I had to say one specific thing that particularly brought me joy... Junius. Sam's Black, aro-ace, single dad is too precious for this world and will soothe your heartaches page after page. 

Rep: non-binary autistic MC on the ace spectrum. The author, as they say in the acknowledgments, is queer, non-binary and autistic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Transphobia

Moderate: Biphobia, Murder, and Bullying

Minor: Gaslighting and Vomit

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Child death, Deadnaming, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Death, Gaslighting, Ableism, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

imstephtacular's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Grief, Mental illness, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Death, Dysphoria, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit, Suicide, Classism, Cursing, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, and Stalking