Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

62 reviews

stephaniealysse's review

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dark tense fast-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

4.0


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stungbythewood's review against another edition

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

3.5

I honestly don’t know how I feel about this book. It was an entertaining read, but that’s the only opinion I walk away with after finishing it.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing and am left feeling unsatisfied.

I had some difficulty trying to describe what problems I had exactly with the characters when another reviewer had done so perfectly and it’s that these characters are characterized by their vices and that’s it…

I’ve found that this in particular made it difficult for me to like two out of the three very prominent female cast in this book. I felt like those struggles is all that those characters really were, besides being loving family members to Stephen. They don’t really feel like full fleshed out people, just tropes and stereotypes.

A lot of it just feels unrealistic? I’m aware that the brain can repress memories that are traumatic in an attempt to protect itself, but it seems like the recollections both Rachel and Tully have in regards to their father’s abuse are just for plot convenience and not due to an actual recalling of a traumatizing event in their lives.

I also think Heather making up that fake story in an attempt to confront Rachel about her rape was wildly inappropriate,
and quite frankly, none of Heather’s damn business no matter how well seeming she tried to come off.

I also don’t appreciate how Rachel’s assault gets kind of glosses over toward the end of the book. Where Tully has resources available and it’s mentioned that her and her son are seeing specialists to help with their issues, Rachel gets with Darcy and suddenly everything is bright and shiny again.

I don’t want to say that it isn’t possible but :/ it feels very unrealistic for Rachel to have ignored this trauma for over fifteen years then suddenly she’s dating Darcy and things are okay.

What was the point of Fiona Arthur? Her character felt very under utilized as well.


Some positives, this book kept me engrossed, I finished it in two days which is a quick read for me, and I liked how most of the chapters were short. I find that longer chapters tend to feel more laborious to read.

At the end of it all, I have more questions than answers and am left with more confusion than clarity. I’ve heard some positive things about her other books in other reviews so I’m willing to give those a shot.

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heatherv's review against another edition

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

3.0


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destiny929's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0


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anne3016's review

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1.0

This book was good., however it ended up being a 1 star. As it dealt with domestic violence 

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annes_reading_journey's review

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1.0

This book was good, however it ended up being a 1 star. As it dealt with a lot of domestic violence and that the guy doing it would re-vert what happened so it didn't look like his fault
 

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ronnieb's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Dementia

This was a 2.5 that I am rounding up to a 3. I do not have much to say that is not a spoiler so brief non-spoiler thoughts: I think this book is fine and is quick enough of a read but there are not many special or shocking moments. 

I had a big issue with this book and it surrounded the character of Rachel. We find out that Rachel was the victim of a sexual assault in her past. The way the book seems to handle her moving past this is she finally sees a hot guy and he “fixes” her. The is slightly more nuisance going on admittedly but it just left such a bad taste in my mouth at the way the whole storyline plays out. 

I also thought the final reveals of the book were just so underwhelming and this was just very baseline. There is nothing wrong with that and I have read many books that end similarly but I think those were just more fun than this. A fix I thought would have been more fun was to have our 3 main leads come together and set up Stephen in some sort of way. While that would be a bit “soapy” and OTT I think it would have led to a much more fun ending than the abrupt one we got. 

I also thought the POV of Tully was useless for the main narrative of this novel. It felt very much like its own B story that never really plays into the main narrative outside of our main characters sharing their trauma or flaws and coming together because of it. 

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jengua1's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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laura_vee's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • 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

4.25


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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • 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

4.25

I liked the way that this story spilled out. I appreciated that it didn't dig too deep into
the assault scene
- that was something that I was nervous about. I appreciated a close look into everyday kleptomania, and I thought the discussion about abuse being all in the victim's head was really interesting. I hope it helps friends identify when folks in their lives need help and validation.

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