Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

62 reviews

popsan27's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

anarchy7's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bbmaan's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-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

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rainynook's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

So good! No wonder this book is so popular. A page-turner. There are some serious themes, but overall the book is quirky, fun and clever.  The characters are each unique and carefully-crafted. Well done!  

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-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

5.0

Please please please! Check the content warnings and know that all of them are prevalent in this book, but you think you can handle them PLEASE read this book. 

Elizabeth Zott is an amazing character, and a survivor. She is the embodiment of female power and a force to be reckoned with. 

The things Zott experiences in the work place are appalling and no one would call her personal life easy. In real life, a woman in Zott’s shoes wouldn’t be faulted for breaking down or giving up. But Zott doesn’t let anything stop her from reaching her goals. She goes on have a wonderful life in spite of the horrendous things she’s had to survive, because she is a survivor. 

Parts of this book had me in tears while others had me fill with so much pride I thought I would burst. At its core, this book is about the strength and resilience of women and I can’t recommend it enough. This will be a book I won’t stop thinking about for a very, very long time. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ashleyhale's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

abundance_of_fiction's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring 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

5.0

I hesitated to start this thinking that it was intended as more of a romance, and my only regret is not starting this book sooner.

Yes there is some romance, but not in the typical sense. In the words of Elizabeth Zott, they are “soul mates”. Not in the cheesy meet-cute fashion but the real-life, messy, laugh and cry sense.

This book was empowering, heartbreaking, and everything in between. I cried so much in the last hundred chapters because I had gone through this journey. I was Elizabeth Zott and I was all the other women. You would think a novel set in the 1950/60s wouldn’t have so many parallels to the modern world but that was the beauty of it. As sad as it is, many of us are still  Elizabeth Zott. Maybe not in the most direct sense but in spirit. 

Even if you can’t relate to Elizabeth Zott’s story, you know someone who can.

Overall, a 5 star read through and through.


*slight spoilers*
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
You will be crying by 30% into the book, so just be Prepared.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

gtures's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Bonnie Garmus' Lessons in Chemistry is such an accomplished piece of writing, which makes it all the more astonishing that it's by a debut author (albeit one with a lot of life experience behind her).

This novel started slow (and dark - readers should be aware [I wasn't] that
there is a violent, graphic sexual assault
before you hit page 50), but once it got going, it grabbed hold of me and did not let go.

Elizabeth Zott is such an incredible main character - tough, uncompromising, fiercely intelligent, and strong-willed (almost too much so, there were times I wished she would bend just a little, but no, she would not), but she did have a gentler side which I appreciated reading about.

Elizabeth needs every bit of willpower, because number one, she was a scientist, and number two, she was an unmarried woman living in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, a time which did not look kindly on women, particularly women who did not fit their prescribed stereotypes.

Fair warning to readers that the misogyny in this book is extreme, infuriatingly so. It comes from not only men but some women too. The sexism was so overwhelmingly awful at times that I had to stop and wonder if it actually was as terrible as Garmus depicts. I'm not sure, but I know that women definitely got a raw deal in this period of history.

The other infuriating thing to read about was so many of the terrible events in the novel could have been prevented if certain people had been less greedy, small-minded, or desperate. But then I guess there wouldn't have been a story, so go figure.

There were a few things that didn't quite work for me. The switches between POV characters would often occur within the same section, and even in the same paragraph at times, which was jarring as I would need to figure out whose POV I was reading.

Also, the POV of Elizabeth's
dog, Six Thirty
was a good idea in theory but didn't work on the page.
Would a dog really have that many thoughts going on in his/her brain?
I also found it hard to believe the advanced intelligence of
Elizabeth's daughter, Madeline. But then I guess some rare children really are that gifted, so I suppose it's not entirely implausible. But still.


Anyway, overall this was a really great read, albeit one with some pretty dark themes - I would advise prospective readers to check the content warnings.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

epen's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Absolutely loved this. Started to listen to have something light and fun to enjoy between podcasts and found myself wanting to listen to this over anything else. I think what stands out the most for me is the crisp, concise, and just-playful-enough writing, a master class in omniscient narration. I loved the characters, which the author has developed with care and complexity and whom I feel like I know. I have such affection for so many of the characters—I started to list them and there were too many—and will be thinking about this book for a long time. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings