Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

22 reviews

katiemack's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• 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

4.0

I didn't love all the gut-punches, but I greatly appreciate the intimate view of family and small-town Midwestern life J. Ryan Stradal has created. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Cancer

purplepenning's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Gaslighting, Child death, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Infertility, Cancer, Death, Grief, Homophobia, and Miscarriage

Minor: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Blood, and Car accident

vanessagrausam's review

lighthearted relaxing 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Infertility

Minor: Cancer

karolinez's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny medium-paced

• 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Child death, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, and Cancer

greatexpectations77's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I really enjoyed this book, and I was impressed at how the author could so intimately describe the characters' emotions. It was also a really complex look at the characters, which made them feel really human. People are extremely imperfect and make mistakes that hurt people, but we can't easily put them into boxes that are as simple as "good" and "bad." Will definitely read this author again. He had some really good turns of phrase.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Infertility, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Outing, and Homophobia

sydneynorman's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage and Alcohol

Minor: Violence, Cancer, and Homophobia

reverendmix's review

emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Body shaming

kyriannaj's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.25

Completely disregard the summary. It doesn't accurately set the book up, and having read and expected that to be what was delivered, I spent the first 100 pages confused and frustrated that what I was promised was no where to be found. However, after that 100 pages? I fell in love. I was fascinated by the characters, their choices, their development, everything. Ned was a confusing character to me and I have mixed feelings on him. His relationship with Mariel also perplexed me. To me though, Florence stole the show. Her innate humanity throughout, the good choices, bad decisions, compromises, consequences, successes, and changes throughout her life were the heart of the book. I felt the ending was rushed and st uggling to figure out a way to wrap it up. I think it would've benefitted from another few chapters to really finalize and let the ending build.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Outing, Pregnancy, Infertility, Child death, and Grief

Minor: Cancer, Homophobia, Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Child abuse

kayjayelle's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Miscarriage

Minor: Cancer

karlymarcy's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Death of parent, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

Minor: Homophobia and Cancer