Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - Dava Shastri's Last Day

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Dava Shastri's Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti

14 reviews

javafenn's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Dana is dying so she brings her children to her beloved home to see out the last of her days before she dies by assisted suicide but not before she releases her obituary, before she’s even gone. What culminates is all of her children coming to terms with her death but also her life and her regrets in how she built an empire for them without taking the time to truly know them. This book was so sad but so happy. So fraught with generational trauma but also with care and love. Seeing how each child and their extended families dealt with Dava’s decisions was very interesting. It’s a great story of love and loss and the narrator was excellent.

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nithyuh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Ok so this book had a lot of boring moments, but it definitely had some that pulled at your heart strings. For example,

Dava’s letter to Chaitanya and her whole convo thing with her grandchildren and Sandi

. The last chapter kinda made me really sentimental. I did appreciate the book for giving Telugu representation. I don’t know if I would recommend this book to someone because of all the inconsistencies and boring moments, but the heartfelt moments really do hit. This book has a close place in my heart though.

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siobhanward's review

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emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

It felt like this book was trying to do a lot of things but didn't succeed at any of them. For a book about death, there was no emotional punch - the characters were unlikeable and hard to relate to. It felt like there was next to no character development of any characters other than Dava. Until the last 50 pages or so when Dava tells her grandkids about their parents/aunts/uncles, I couldn't even tell the kids apart. And Dava's development doesn't do her any favours - if anything, the more I read about her, the less I liked her.

I'm also not sure why Ramisetti opted to set the book in 2044? I think more will change in the next 20 years that Ramisetti reflected since she writes 2044 as if it's 2022. Other than having the book not take place in the pandemic, I'm not sure what this achieved (and simply pushing the date back so that the book takes place pre-covid would not have changed anything about the story). If you're writing a book that takes place 20 years from now you need to be prepared to write as though it's the future and not the exact same as now...

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tashtasher's review

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emotional medium-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? Yes

2.0

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jennifer_bush_73's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

5.0

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marydith's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

I think this was a very well-written book; I just didn't enjoy it. It's hard to enjoy a character-driven story when the characters are the main thing don't like about it. I'm just completely unable to feel any kind of sympathy or compassion for a billionaire, even a fictional one. I *do* love any discussion and awareness of assisted suicide, and I genuinely did love the premise.

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onmalsshelf's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Thank you Grand Central for an ARC and a finished copy in exchange for a review.

Dava Shastri has ulterior motives.

Dava Shasri is a horrible person.

Dava Shastri's last day was too long.

Dava Shastri did not raise a single decent person.

Dava Shastri traumatized her grandchildren.

Interesting premise that did not deliver. Too many unlikeable people and no one to cheer for except maybe a son-in-law, Colin, and the four grandkids.

Dava basically gathered her family at their family compound to find how what the world would say about her death, but she ended up finding out what her kids thought about her and her actions when they were younger.

For a character driven novel - there was zero character development for anyone minus Dava (and that wasn’t even that great).

I do recommend the audiobook. Soneela Nankani was fantastic and I’d love to dive into other audiobooks she’s done. Plus, there was the song ‘Dava’ at the end.

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