Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Särmikäs Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

181 reviews

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is heart breaking yet heart warming story that focuses a lot on trauma and grief. I really think marketing it as a thriller was not a good move because people who are expecting something intense or fast paced would likely think this is boring. This books is more emotionally intense than thrilling, in my opinion. I do think the ending felt kind of rushed.

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dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I listened to this as an audiobook and finished it over two days of commutes and lunch breaks. Couldn't put it down! I liked the pacing and I found Sally hugely endearing, but I don't quite feel like it stuck the landing for me. Maybe I'm just not crimebrained enough but I wonder if I would have preferred this story as a novella purely about Sally, without Peter's POV chapters.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I went into this knowing next to nothing, just that it was recommended as a good thriller/mystery. It grabbed me from the first two paragraphs and I ended up reading it in less than 24 hours.

I really don’t want to spoil it for anyone else who wants to read it, so I’ll just say that I thought the first 90% was excellent but I did not like the ending.
I think what I didn’t like is that from the last letter to Sally from Angela, we are led to think OK, Sally will likely make a slow recovery and regain the community supports she had worked so hard to build; she’ll be OK-ish despite everything that transpired with her brother in the last few chapters. However, I wanted to SEE that recovery, not just be left thinking it would probably happen. I rarely feel I’m owed anything as a reader, but because I was so invested in Sally’s story and her hard-fought journey to happiness, I did feel I was owed that assurance. I wanted to see at least ONE reconciliation. A letter from Angela is a good start, but it’s one-sided and we don’t know how, or even if, Sally responds. That was what I wanted the author to end with.
However, even though I didn’t like the ending, the first 90% was so good I definitely don’t regret having read it.

This book is funny and touching but also highly disturbing. So, be warned.

First two paragraphs:
“Put me out with the trash,” he said regularly. “When I die, put me out with the trash. I’ll be dead, so I won’t know any different. You’ll be crying your eyes out,” and he would laugh and I’d laugh too because we both knew that I wouldn’t be crying my eyes out. I never cry.

When the time came, on Wednesday, 19th November 2017, I followed his instructions. He was small and frail and eighty-two years old by then, so it was easy to get him into one large garden garbage bag.

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