Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Bellies by Nicola Dinan

25 reviews

hanhantap's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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libraryoflanelle's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

I adored this book with all my heart. It easily became a new favourite. 

I finished 'Bellies' in almost one sitting, and it absolutely consumed me. I fell in love with these characters in record time and felt all of their emotions right along with them. Nicola writes these characters in such a way that you immediately feel like you yourself are part of their little chaotic but loving found family. I truly cried, laughed out loud, and kicked my lil’ feet through this book.

I went into this one knowing almost nothing, and I would highly recommend you do the same if it is safe for you to do so. I have included content warnings in my StoryGraph review as always, so just make sure you’re safe. If you’ve been debating picking this one up, consider this your push.

I borrowed this one from the library - shout out to local libraries - so will definitely be buying a copy asap, as I know this will be one that I come back to in future!
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whittlebit's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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b_fruits's review against another edition

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3.75

Ehhhhhhhh 😭 I wanted to love this so much, and I did for most of it, but the big Plot Twist™️ simply did not work for me. It felt unnecessary and I didn’t find that it deepened any of the characters or moved the plot along in a smooth way. I was disappointed by how much I grew to dislike the characters in a way that felt unintentional. Some heavy themes were touched on so briefly that they felt inappropriate (
primarily Cass and Ming’s ED issues
. Still, the writing was beautiful and evocative and comfortingly relatable at many times. I would love to read more from the author. 
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taralouise52's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.25

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drrooly's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mingle_jingle's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

An interesting premise, exploring the complexities and intersections of love, friendship, queer identity. It feels like an honest representative of the age group portrayed in the book, but I didn't find the characters particularly likeable. 

It was thoughtful, sad, honest and poignant in so many aspects of the storyline and character development. 

Although this book wasn't my cup of tea, I can see myself recommending this book to others - younger queer folks or parents of queer community members - to get an honest insight into the lives & loves of younger queer people. In this book, I particularly liked the representation of the family members of the two main protagonists. 

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joensign's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-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

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alysereadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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poenaestante's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

This book is sorta simple with a twist of transness. Like Ming's transition is kinda the only thing that makes this book interesting in the way that it kinda makes every character in the story more interesting in a way they would likely be loathe to admit.  I might just be jaded because I know a lot of trans people and so this feels very quotidian to me in a way it might not for someone in Michigan or the Midlands or whatever. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn't brilliant.

Also, it might be weird to say but the most interesting part of this book was the food.  Nicola should put out a companion cookbook.
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