Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Lessons in Chemistry

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

54 reviews

melchncookies's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

I read along with the audiobook. I don’t typically love the last few chapters of books, but this one had me rapt until the last sentence. It ended at the perfect time, all hope and wonder, but I also wish it had gone on. I also recognize the book would have ended badly if it had. So, 5⭐️ doesn’t seem good enough, but it’s what we have. Best read of the year so far.

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katjacatbeans's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

I can't believe this is B.G.'s debut novel.
Elizabeth Zott is an inspiration of meticulous tenacity. I'm honestly speechless; the care and craft of all the characters is phenomenal.

i also love how Six Thirty was inspired by a dog the author owned.

S-T is now my favorite supporting character ever; he's pushed Bob* out of the #1 spot (*from T. Kingfisher's book A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking)

I also deeply appreciate the unrelenting & uncompromising commitment to social justice throughout the text. There's a lot to take from that.

IT'S SO GOOD. I'm immediately watching the show on Apple TV.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

I have seen that this book continues to be popular, and I wanted to try it for myself. I adored the characters and the writing. I thought the book was paced well, but there were a few threads that were started and never went anywhere. For example:

Walter's crush on Harriet and Elizabeth's participation in the rowing team after her pregnancy

. I also felt that, although it was in character for Elizabeth to be antiracist because she finds racism and all other forms of bigotry to be illogical, there are no Black characters or other characters of color in the book. Finally, the author employs some words turns of phrase that were definitely not used in the 1950s/1960s: e.g. "fast forward to now."

Even with all these caveats, I enjoyed the book very much, and I would highly recommend it. The author does an excellent job of showing how structural sexism harms all of society, not just women. The tragedies in the book feel very complex and human.

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hedgehogreads01's review against another edition

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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

4.0

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laurens_beanbag's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-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? No

3.5

This book seemed so promising, but unfortunately I did not like it as much as I thought I would. First, I don’t think the book should have been marketed as funny or witty. It could be funny at times, but not to the point where that’s what it’s known for. I would not call this a humorous book. In the first half of the book alone, there is a graphic scene of SA, mention of suicide, and lots of familial death. And these dark topics are dropped out of nowhere and then the characters move on. It’s very jarring and I wish there was a content warning in the beginning of the book, especially for the graphic SA scene.

With that aside, the actual content of the book was not what I expected either. I wish we could have explored more about how Elizabeth Zott came to form her feminist views, because her beliefs are similar to current 21st century feminism. While that’s not a problem by itself, we don’t explore how Elizabeth Zott came to figure out these views or how she was so ahead of her time. We just have to believe she’s not like everyone else. The rest of the characters in the book just aren’t on her level of understanding, but we don’t get to learn how Elizabeth got to this point. Where did she learn all these things? Why are the other female characters shown to be catty and superficial? Why isn’t Elizabeth given more positive relationships with other female characters?

This book did make many good points about feminism, and I did enjoy reading it, but considering this is historical fiction that takes place in the 50s and 60s, I wish the author did more to immerse us into the setting aside from just making every other character misogynistic and Elizabeth Zott the enlightened one. Despite this book’s flaws, I still did like reading it, and I think I should have gone into this book blind instead of placing so many expectations onto it. This is the author’s debut novel, and it’s well done. Had the book been marketed differently (which I understand is something the author doesn’t have much control over) I think I would have enjoyed reading it even more for the first time.

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effervescent_4909's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed this read. It's equally as much about the main character's male partner which I didn't realise when I started reading but I enjoyed both parts of the story.

Readers should DEFINITELY check the trigger warnings before reading – there are some quite graphic and confronting scenes but these could be easily skipped (if you choose) and the rest of the story can still be followed.

Content Warnings