Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey

15 reviews

harleyburch's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This was like looking at a car crash. God awful but you've gotta see what happens next. Darkly hooking.
The prose wasn't special. There wasn't much plot. The allusive segments telling the story of the past would have been better aided by being fleshed out more. All of the characters were pretty faceless. The literary allusions didn't add much to the atmosphere, felt much more like a grasp at sophistication which didn't work nor was necessary. HOWEVER: the relationships between parents and their children, the past and the present, and relationships generally alongside the slow spiralling of dismal situations made for a somewhat enjoyable fast-paced reading experience. Like I said, I felt it wasn't worth looking at but I couldn't look away. Therefore, it deserves merit for its ability to entertain. Not much more beyond that though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, and Death

lisalisalisa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Death

Minor: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Child abuse

bootrat's review

emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Death, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Grief, and Suicide

bek_p87's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I couldn't quite pin down why exactly this book was set in 1973/1997, and the inexplicability and lack of necessity of that affected my enjoyment of the story. However, if that were my only qualm, I'd probably have been able to push it aside - unfortunately, it was not. There were so many loose endings that weren't fleshed out, new plot points being added in place of old ones being explained, not to mention (although I guess I'm about to) some truly wild and disastrous decisions by mother and daughter alike. I really wanted to like this, but it was only okay. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Cancer, War, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia and Death of parent

emmarose91's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Death

em_daydreaming's review

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Homophobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death

Minor: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Self harm, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Infertility, Physical abuse, and Vomit

larade's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Sexism, Infertility, and War

angrybookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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 was honestly a little disappointed by this book. I really liked the concept but it took me a longggggg time to care about the characters at all. I felt like I couldn't relate to either of them very much until about halfway through the book. A lot of Maeve's character felt like it was made more complicated than it needed to be for these things to happen. I have no idea why her having been ill as a child was important to her story at all. I hated Stuart from the very first time he was mentioned and I was right. I wish the ending was more satisfying because once we got into the very real complications of these characters and I started to think they were interesting, they just wrapped everything up and everything was "okay" in the end without anyone actually doing anything to get there. I do think it's a good book, I just wanted more out of these characters because I think they deserved it.

I also really think they should have drowned Stuart in the river at the end. It would have been satisfying

Though, I do wonder if maybe the reason the ending wasn't satisyfing is because it was a realistic ending. That is kind of how those things tend to go and I think a lot of my wishing is that I was in Maeve's position once and I wish someone had

DROWNED HIM

instead of just not doing anything about it really. The mom deserved better, too. Stuart deserved worse. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, and Terminal illness

Minor: War, Homophobia, and Sexual violence

236girls's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

2.75

oh jeez oh where do i begin... i loved the writing! it was beautiful and atmospheric but oh i wish so badly this leaned towards the queer ladies more than the grooming but both parts were written well so i didn't like. HATE reading it but some parts were more hard to stomach than others. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Cancer

Moderate: Death and Homophobia

olivia02strom's review against another edition

2.0

Wish I was aware of the heavy grooming plot line ahead of time...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Infidelity and Infertility