Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

3 reviews

elizaeaa22's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Cursing, Bullying, Gaslighting, Violence, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Drug use, Death of parent, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

deebee223's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Police brutality, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Confinement, War, Blood, Cancer, Classism, and Terminal illness

book_annelid's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Disappointed! I love Amor Towles other books but this was not it. I found the dispensing of life advice from 18 year old convicts and an 8 year old who’s never left his home town to be trite. The writing was beautiful but the plot seemed to have no direction whatsoever. Characters seemed at once flat and also to be acting out of character. Sally’s character was so cliche. Reading it she seemed like a woman written by an out of touch man. She really bugged me. Does this book even pass the Bechtel test? Also a bit overly “ra ra America”. While Amors other books give you a feeling (the way true art does) and hide universal truths in a beautiful, enjoyable storyline, this book felt like a was being bludgeoned over the head with a message, characters and plot be damned. 

Wtf was that ending! It was such a cliche “twist”, the everyone-dies-at-the-end has been done a million times. I found other musings to be cliche as well. For example, Maurice being not white enough and not black enough. The ending was just so unnecessary and pointless. It would’ve been less annoying had Dutches been left in the boat when it ended. Either way an unsatisfactory ending. Terrible! It was fine for the first 3/4 but after that it just went downhill. If the first 3/4 had continued could’ve been a 3.5 or 3.75 and with a good ending maybe a 4. But the bad rushed ending made me annoyed with the whole rest of the book and confused what all that setup was even for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Murder, Bullying, Death, Suicide, and Abandonment

Moderate: Racism