Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey

8 reviews

ellenigrace's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Cancer, Suicide, and Medical trauma

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

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

cole_louise's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, and Cancer

Moderate: Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, War, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Lesbophobia

rcsreads's review

dark 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

1.5

A large part of this is just paedophile porn. There's no need for the inappropriate relationship to be gone into with so much detail. 
The mother's side of the story would have been enough although it has some unpleasant, outdated and homophobic opinions expressed. The daughters story is actively disgusting and romanticised paedophilia. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Drug use, Medical content, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Outing

jen_prouvaire's review

challenging dark reflective sad slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Cancer, Death of parent, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, and Miscarriage