Reviews

Roots by Tara O'Connor

meadows2020's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

whatchareadingheather's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.0

This was my first experience with a memoir in graphic novel style and I'm definitely motivated to discover more in this form or would like to see certain memoirs in graphic novel form. I understand that Tara's journey didn't go quite as planned, and while I adore real-life rom-coms I just wanted a little more. There were a few parts, specifically during the long-distance relationship parts, that I feel were a little rushed because I found it hard to figure out how much time had passed. 

lavendermarch's review

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3.0

Good

This was good but not quite what I expected. More personal growth and exploration than family history. The romance was cute, and I liked that it was all based off of a real story. 3.5 stars.

peachani's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

2.5

hwconductor's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

3.0

rhino's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

vishnu_'s review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

2.75

winterdawn's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted reflective

4.0

chelseamartinez's review against another edition

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2.0

The story here is a bit misleading, it's a breakup and new relationship story, and it's a lot of telling not showing; even though it's a small book a lot of it is taken up with the process of making the book (the kickstarter, comic shows, etc.); the actual search for ROOTS is basically failed, and the protagonist notes that "when people travel, they often note the differences, but I noticed the similarities;" this is a fine observation but seems limited by the fact that she is in an English speaking country and seems not to venture too far beyond pubs and friends of friends.

zomvi's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

1.0

What was originally intended to be a deep-dive memoir into finding her cultural roots and restarting life after a failed marriage, the author instead babbles about a romance she began impulsively by hooking up with a Twitter friend (whom she met online, during her marriage). Aside from benefitting from a somewhat misleading Kickstarter campaign to obtain the funds to produce and publish this book, I do also call into question her interest in using the title "Roots", given there is a SIGNIFICANTLY more important historical and racial study of the same name.