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carlapastor's review against another edition
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I don't understand this book. A lot of the times this seemed like a Wattpad book with the whole "I am so ugly because I have CURLY RED hair and I am SMALL and CURVY and have GLASSES so no one wants me" (thanks god she did stop using her glasses and grew her hair so it'd be less curly because WHO would want curly hair right...?). I am so tired of that kind of MC's because girl, I didn't start taking care of my curly hair until a year ago because of how the media portraits it. It is simply awful. But then, at some points, specially more in the second half, the book had beautiful lines, like Amy Harmon had written the first half when she was 15 and the second half 30, and although there still were some parts of were questionable, it was quite good.
Still, there's this line when Ambrose is talking about Iraq and its people that makes me give this book such a low score because it gave me the major ick: "though the Kurds were slightly more tolerant and recognized that *America might be their only hope*"... what the actual fuck? Yeah just like Palestine's only hope is Israel, or Germany's only hope in 1936 were the nazis? Honestly disgusting. Of course I did some research and turns out the author seems politically ambiguous because she has ideas that scream leftist but is very right-leaning. And I do not believe in separating the art from the artist.
I have read another one of her books, What the wind knows, which was a beautifully written story about Ireland, so I had high hopes for this one too. The premise seemed cool. But it disappointed me so much. However, it is true that there's a 5-year difference from when she published this book to when she published the other one, so maybe she just grew up a lot. I really hope so, honestly.
Also just one thing why is everyone's favorite quote "If god makes all of our faces, did he laugh when making mine?" because I hate it to my core. And it's not even about religion because this is a very religious book and I couldn't care less as an atheist, but that quote bothered me so much for some reason.
Still, there's this line when Ambrose is talking about Iraq and its people that makes me give this book such a low score because it gave me the major ick: "though the Kurds were slightly more tolerant and recognized that *America might be their only hope*"... what the actual fuck? Yeah just like Palestine's only hope is Israel, or Germany's only hope in 1936 were the nazis? Honestly disgusting. Of course I did some research and turns out the author seems politically ambiguous because she has ideas that scream leftist but is very right-leaning. And I do not believe in separating the art from the artist.
I have read another one of her books, What the wind knows, which was a beautifully written story about Ireland, so I had high hopes for this one too. The premise seemed cool. But it disappointed me so much. However, it is true that there's a 5-year difference from when she published this book to when she published the other one, so maybe she just grew up a lot. I really hope so, honestly.
Also just one thing why is everyone's favorite quote "If god makes all of our faces, did he laugh when making mine?" because I hate it to my core. And it's not even about religion because this is a very religious book and I couldn't care less as an atheist, but that quote bothered me so much for some reason.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and War
bbygirl21's review against another edition
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this book. It's an absolutely beautiful story that completely wrecked me. I went through all the emotions with this one. I went into this not realizing just how sad and emotional it is and I had to hold back my tears when out in public.
Bailey was my favorite out of this whole book. Everyone in the book loved him and I understand why. He's the funniest sweetest most loving character. Most of my favorite quotes from this book came from him. It absolutely broke my heart what happened to him in this book. I knew he was gonna live a short life due to his muscular disease, I just didn't know that he was gonna go the way he did. He definitely deserved to have gone in a different way. But I can see why he went the way he did. It makes sense with the type of person he is.
I also really loved the theme of this book about beauty not being everything. Most of these characters are flawed in some way shape or form. Maybe not at the beginning but eventually you start to see the flaws of these characters.
I can't recommend this book enough. It may end up being in my top favorites of the year. Especially considering this is my first 5 star read of 2024. I would recommend this to everyone.
Bailey was my favorite out of this whole book. Everyone in the book loved him and I understand why. He's the funniest sweetest most loving character. Most of my favorite quotes from this book came from him. It absolutely broke my heart what happened to him in this book. I knew he was gonna live a short life due to his muscular disease, I just didn't know that he was gonna go the way he did. He definitely deserved to have gone in a different way. But I can see why he went the way he did. It makes sense with the type of person he is.
I also really loved the theme of this book about beauty not being everything. Most of these characters are flawed in some way shape or form. Maybe not at the beginning but eventually you start to see the flaws of these characters.
I can't recommend this book enough. It may end up being in my top favorites of the year. Especially considering this is my first 5 star read of 2024. I would recommend this to everyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Grief, Chronic illness, Death, War, and Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Bullying, and Murder
Minor: Infertility, Pregnancy, and Alcoholism
luchikreads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, War, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma
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