Reviews tagging 'Grief'

For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn

103 reviews

kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry

taytayhart's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad 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

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This story is about Lily after she dies. This story shows how the world's religious and not transition on after death. Lily curious about Hell decides to adventure from her paradise to see what its all about. If what she was taught were true. This story shows a beautiful story of how a few characters learn from thier tramas and find love and acceptance. All while saying and doing what every retail worker has ever wanted to do to stubborn, entitled pieces of work that has cross thier path.

One minute your laughing at the witty banter or rolling your eyes at the dad jokes. You'll cry as hard as the characters as they face hard truths and cheer when they succeed. 

This is book is based off a story that began on Tiktok under @Sea.Ya.Later by the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

thethinginyourcloset's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted 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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

anotherrandomuser's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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I really loved this book! It was nice to not be reading for the smut scenes for once 🤣 although they were appreciated. Lily and Bel are absolutely adorable with their lil Sharkie. I can’t wait for book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Grief

scarletrose169's review against another edition

4.75

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy

Moderate: Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

lotusblade's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

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This is the most gorgeous story I've read in a while. It has adventure, self discovery, trauma, romance, fun, and wonderful character development. I can actually see myself reading it again in years to come. Absolutely brilliant. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma

vickybuka's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

kaelilili's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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

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This book suffered from Main Character Syndrome. Somehow, everything always worked out, and the main character was always the most popular, beautiful, and lusted-after girl in the whole Universe. I understand that this book is an opportunity for the author to create an idealized world, but it was a little too convenient how things worked out. It felt like I was reading a fanfiction a lot of the time. Everything was really trope-y and predictable.

Also, I did not like the war aspect. It was so lazy and not fleshed out. It felt like a plot device to create tension rather than an actual conflict. Lastly, her being turned into a deity at the end to stay in Hell was so dumb and too convenient. I was left going “Of course” because why wouldn’t it work out for her when everything else in the book did?

Despite my criticisms, I did like the representations of healthy relationships and communication between partners and parents/guardians and children. That was a highlight of this book that improved my rating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Blood

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol

Characters have consensual sex throughout the book in detail. There are moments where two characters relive a memory from their childhood regarding sexual assault, self-harming, and rape. A character fights in a war and kills an entire population of a species, including children. A character is diagnosed with and dies of cancer at the beginning of the book before entering the afterlife. Characters consume moderate amounts of alcohol in social settings in some scenes. A character gags and almost vomits but does not actually puke. However, this scene can be triggering for those with emetophobia.

storytimewithlily's review against another edition

4.25

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 This book made me cry multiple times. Highly recommend.

(Please check trigger warnings before reading coz it got heavy several times) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death

nicolenoodles's review against another edition

3.5

dark 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

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This book suffered horribly for its lack of editing. It could have been more effective at half its length and often read more like a slice of life fanfic.   Difficult themes were often addressed with a very didactic tone that didn’t feel at all organic to the stories or the characters.  Having  said that, the central friends to lovers trope was compelling with an excellent slow burn! The narrators were fabulous and there were many times I didn’t want to stop listening.  I didn’t love the ending which was disappointing after such a lengthy book. Overall a fun listen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, War

Moderate: Infertility, Grief

Minor: Miscarriage