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ksilvio's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Abortion
Minor: Car accident and Death
pheebabeeba_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The main conflict; the case of Mirabelle/ May-Ling appeared close to the halfway point of the story. It introduced one of the main themes of the story: motherhood.
The theme was very well written and thorough. Nothing about it felt black and white. Admittedly, I didn’t care for a lot of the characters views on things,(the adoption, the surrogacy)but I understood them.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Xenophobia, Abortion, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Car accident, and Death
Moderate: Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Cancer
Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcohol
amandamz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Moderate: Abortion, Kidnapping, and Infertility
Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Miscarriage
astridvb's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Abortion and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Death
thesecretsapphic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Misogyny, Abortion, Sexism, Alcohol, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Child abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse
echood's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Infertility, Death, Kidnapping, and Abortion
chaotic_bibliophile's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Kidnapping, Grief, Miscarriage, and Abortion
Minor: Death and Car accident
clarelou612's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Xenophobia, Death, and Racism
kecasey's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Abortion
Minor: Kidnapping and Death
madelinequinnee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I think this book did a really good job of reflecting how a lot of people in this day and age think. There are a lot of Mrs Richardsons in this world, women who think they’re very open minded and ‘woke’ for lack of better word, but deep down have the same prejudices as openly racist or classist people. We hear how she supposedly believed everyone was equal, yet she had many opinions on Bebe and her situation that could be seen as microaggressions. She also white knighted herself when it first came to Pearl and Mia, how she thought renting the house out to ‘lesser fortunate’ people was her doing a big good deed for the world, and then basically forcing Mia to take the housekeeper job since she couldn’t see how working at the restaurant on minimum wage could be fulfilling to anyone.
I personally found Lexie becoming one of my favourite characters by the end of the book. To begin with, she seemed like your typical shallow, rich teen girl who only cared about superficial things, but as we got to know her, we saw how smart and emotionally intelligent she was. Her abortion story was heartbreaking but one that mirrors a lot of young girls from her background own’s. We got to see her grow and become more understanding to other people’s situations after going through her own troubles, and I think that was really interesting.
I think Moody is a good example of the ‘sensitive, art type’ who is really just an incel behind that act. The way he reacted when he thought Pearl was the one who had an abortion really showed his true colours.
Overall i think this was a wonderful book!
Graphic: Classism, Infertility, Car accident, Grief, Abortion, Death, Medical content, Racism, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship