Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

10 reviews

woolen_pigeon's review

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Infidelity

azk's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder

Minor: Infidelity, Grief, and Mental illness

xianliya's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

I personally didn’t like the Plot. I didn’t like how the process was slow, there wasn’t much developement at all (aside from MC growing up) and the Ending was very open without any strings resolved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder

Moderate: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

saskiahill's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief

Minor: Toxic friendship and Self harm

themadpage's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Infidelity

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This book was a gut punch. It was consistently sad the whole way through, but it ends on a hopeful note, at the very least. It's about an emotionally broken family that never heals. It's about childhood disappointments that turn into regrets in adulthood. It's about not fitting in, no matter your age or position in life. This is not a pick-me-up, but it is beautifully written. The gorgeous language is what made me keep turning the pages, and quickly, too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: Body horror

radfordmanor's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

sssssoup's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Okay so. What the fuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Grief, Infidelity, Eating disorder, and Medical content

Minor: Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, and Death

bencaroline's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Body horror

The addiction I perceive in this book is so nontraditional, even magical, that I didn't give it more than a "minor" designation, but to me, the theme of addiction is pervasive. The disordered eating in this book is similarly magical, but because the book is centered around food and eating and the protagonist's struggle with these things, I marked it as 'graphic.'

wike's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly, it's been a few months since I read this, but it made a huge impression on me, but I saw there are a lot of negative reviews of this book I have to leave my thoughts here. I'm guessing you've read the summary, so I won't go into the premise. So, a few things: this is not a super-hero story. It's not about a girl who gets a superpower and then fixes everything. The gift of tasting peoples emotions in food (and not just that, she can taste the entire production chain, really) is treated much more as a disability most of the time. Which it is, if you think about it. She has to eat. But every time she does she has to deal with someone else's pain. A nice detail of a subtle coping mechanism is her love of vending-machines. This is a story of someone having to deal with acute involuntary empathy, isolation and a very complicated relationship with everyone in her family. 

I personally spent this book just getting gradually more heartbroken for it's characters. I usually hate depressing books, but it's beautifully written, with great empathy and though the premise might invite cynicism, it never becomes the tone of the story. It has whimsy, but it's not a light read. Not for me at least. I bawled my eyes out towards the end of it, and there were a few moments that I found quite horrifying. Also, the magical realism is a bigger part of the story than you expect it to be in the beginning. But there's no radio-active spiders, magical theory or science-stuff explaining it, there's almost no testing the limits, no training-montages, there's no fighting some great evil. It's mostly just dealing with whatever it is this gift demands from you. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Grief

Minor: Suicide