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charlypeters's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The characters in this book felt really authentic and I liked that not every part of the story was neatly wrapped up and answered.
sayy3's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
whatismichaelareading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
nikikalyvides's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
otterlyawe's review against another edition
5.0
It’s too real to be called fiction. The trauma that Av went through and how she struggled to handle the pain of her husbands death and how that kept her from being able to move on really was heartbreaking. And the discovery Nik went through from the first steps being to getting the keys to an old rusty garage to handling the journal of his father and finally getting the piece together was something beyond my expectations. And to not forget how every piece connected together at the end. Av’s fear of that car, her taking the only photo Nik had of his father. Chand’s very strict and protective behaviour. A truly beautiful story. Though a single question remains. Who was little Nick and where can we find him?
nyxlexica's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
A somewhat tenuous three, swung up from a two by the personalities of Nik and his friends, all of whom I enjoyed immensely, and by the very real look at Nik's growing depression.
The prose is fine, the overarching framework of mother and son's step into adulthood is interesting, but I found this book lacked progression. It establishes that Avani is stoic extremely early on, and she never really becomes anything else. The whys of her emotional stunting just aren't that interesting because they don't expose anything new or unexpected about her modern-day self; in the final pages, she decides she needs to talk, but we don't see that payoff, and the decision is made like a switch, begging the question of why she took this long, seriously, if we think about eighteen years of keeping such a secret and maintaining such emotional stasis.
I felt there was a marked difference between Nik's trauma, which was keenly depicted and very grounded in the real world, and his father's (and Avani's, to a lesser extent) which bordered on melodramatic and suffered from a distance established partly through his lack of voice as a narrator but also because we hear about the worst of it in the past of the past. The brother plotline seemed unnecessary, garish alongside Nik's more real-world issues.
The prose is fine, the overarching framework of mother and son's step into adulthood is interesting, but I found this book lacked progression. It establishes that Avani is stoic extremely early on, and she never really becomes anything else. The whys of her emotional stunting just aren't that interesting because they don't expose anything new or unexpected about her modern-day self; in the final pages, she decides she needs to talk, but we don't see that payoff, and the decision is made like a switch, begging the question of why she took this long, seriously, if we think about eighteen years of keeping such a secret and maintaining such emotional stasis.
I felt there was a marked difference between Nik's trauma, which was keenly depicted and very grounded in the real world, and his father's (and Avani's, to a lesser extent) which bordered on melodramatic and suffered from a distance established partly through his lack of voice as a narrator but also because we hear about the worst of it in the past of the past. The brother plotline seemed unnecessary, garish alongside Nik's more real-world issues.
himasha90's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
theinkandthepage's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0