Reviews tagging 'Grief'

L'amie prodigieuse by Elena Ferrante

19 reviews

mollyg21's review against another edition

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Wasn’t grabbing me. It wasn’t something I found myself wanting to reach for so I decided that life’s too short to read a book that wasn’t grabbing my attention. I wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

sam_as_in_3's review against another edition

3.25

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The first 100-150 pages were quite boring. The rest raised some interest in me, maybe because the characters are at an age where I as the reader have memories of too and can compare my pre-teen and teen-years to theirs. Also the class difference(?) or better the different paths in the two girls' lives become more apparent. Now I actually want to know how their lives unfold which means I would have to read the other books in the series.

I couldn't keep up with all the names (especially Alfonso & Antonio) which would be easier with a physical copy of the book because there is a name glossary in the beginning.
Minimal spoiler ahead:
 enough, I expected Lila is the 'genius friend' from the title (because Elena worships her) but turns out that is what Lila calls Elena at one point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment

ankan_tove's review against another edition

5.0

lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

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Extremely relatable 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Murder, Alcohol

ladybell's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The book was not what I expected for a coming of age story. The are Elena grows up in, in the outskirts of Naples, is full of poverty, violence, and anti-intellectualism. As she continues this journey of being educated, a rarity in the early 50's, we see her grow confused with the people in her life as she struggles to reconcile her past and her future. Elena is also enamored with her friend Lila, a unique and clever girl. And their friendship pushes one another, since they are the only two who understand each other. Even when they grow apart, they come back together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Classism

sadhbh2525's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Rape, Grief

Minor: Pregnancy

lexcellent's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Classism

miller8d's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book is brilliant in a way that makes me say “This is the story of a real life,” not “omg I love this book.” Like, I don’t really feel like I read a fictional story. (I actually have no clue if it’s autobiographical or not but I won’t google it because I don’t want to spoil it). Perhaps for that reason, this book took me an incredible long time to read. Like, months on end of picking it up and loving it, but being unable to pick it up again because it was so difficult to read. I don’t even think it was actually difficult literature for me, but instead so emotionally dense and detail-heavy that I couldn’t pay anything but 100% attention while reading, otherwise I’d have to go back dozens of pages to figure out why I was confused. Also,

this is perhaps the only book or story I’ve ever known which accurately depicts how tumultuous and confusing and painful it can be to survive childhood and grow up. I absolutely loved her depiction of how the child’s mind can equally spin fantasy and horrific terror on the same coin— not simple boogieman stuff, but much scarier, finding awful and disturbing fears in/around the mundane figures of your social world and daily life, even when there’s nothing truly wrong there.

Beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

risemini's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail

folklorestan's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief