Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

7 reviews

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

dark funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book. This book is like Love on the Spectrum meets a psychological thriller.

The synopsis of this book doesn't feel totally accurate to me as this book is much more complex than you'd think. Fern and Rose are twins. Rose is neurotypical and Fern is autistic. Rose wants a baby but is struggling with fertility. Fern decides on her own that it'd be a lovely gift for her to have a baby to give Rose since they're twins. Fern wants to find a nice smart man to father the baby. She meets a guys at the library in which she works at and this event triggers a series of happenings that change her life forever and make her question everything she knows about herself and her life.

The author absolutely nailed writing the novel from the autistic perspective of Fern. It's hilarious and endearing. The book also contains excerpts from Roses diary which add context to her relationship with Fern and things that happened in their childhoods. Things start off pretty light then get a bit more tense in the second half. This story ended up being so much more than I expected. I thought it was brilliant. 

The audiobook is really well narrated too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, Infertility, Pedophilia, and Grief

bookworm_43's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

luizamjc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Ok, so I started this book thinking I was not going to like it. The story seemed interesting, but it is a bit complicated when autistic people are represented by a (as far as I know) non-autistic author. And Fern’s descriptions in the beginning seem a bit problematic. But then this changes throughout the book while you figure things out and understand what’s really happening there. I didn’t think the plot was predictable like I’ve seen some people saying. I mean, it was to a certain extent, but the details still surprised me, and even though I had generally figured out what had happened, once I hit like the 200th page I literally could not stop reading cause I needed to know the details and what was going to happen. Fern and Wally are very loveable characters and their love really made me emotional. I loved the ending. However, I do think that it might contain some problematic representation of some mental illnesses that could be harmful to the people who have them. I think the part of Rose’s presumed diagnosis could’ve been left out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Death, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Grief, Ableism, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

one character who is portrayed as a very bad person and has killed people is said to possibly have borderline personality disorder, which I think might be triggering if you have it

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This was very engaging, and I was curious about the portrayal of autism or at least someone being very sensitive to sensory things. I would read this author again - I thought the format was very interesting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Confinement, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Grief

Minor: Abortion

Huge, huge content warning about pregnancy

wylda_bee's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Graphic: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Sexual assault, and Murder

Moderate: Infertility, Abandonment, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Ableism, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

bitesizedbeet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Infertility, and Medical content

opinionsofawolf's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Infertility, Grief, Death of parent, Confinement, and Child death

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Child abuse

The ableism is specifically ableist against autistic people and people with a mental illness.