Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

4 reviews

akirma's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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 haven't finished a book this quickly in years. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Biphobia, Blood, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Mental illness

Minor: Child abuse

dragon_lord's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

I just want to say that, even though this review is a little harsh, I did still like this book, at least a little, and am still glad I read it. I just felt like this book (and this series) had a lot of potential that it just didn’t live up to, which is just highlighted by how, in my opinion, the first book was the best one in the series. I liked the previous two books in this series, even though they had their flaws, but this book just felt unnecessary. I’ve seen a lot of reviews saying that the second book was also unnecessary, but I liked the question it posed of “what happens to the chosen one after the story ends”, even if it wasn’t executed in the best way. This book has three different unrelated plots, and while two of them do technically interact with eachother, the third feels like it’s just there to fill pages. The plot felt predictable, and I was able to see the twists coming from a mile away. This feels like it’s just trying to do what the first book did, but worse. The villain feels half-baked and his motives were unclear to the point where I don’t even know if they were fully explained. The climax lacked any suspense whatsoever because, spoiler alert, Simon wins. wow. so surprising. As if there was ever a possibility that he wouldn’t.

This book also dives headfirst into one of my least favorite tropes, with every character having to couple up by the end of the story. As much as I like LGBTQ+ rep, Niamh and Agatha just felt forced and unneeded. But apparently it’s impossible for two characters to just be friends, so of course we also had to get Shepard and Penelope. Is it just me or does it feel like Shepard and Niamh were only introduced into the story to be love interests? I had also hoped that this book would clear up Lucy’s ending from Carry On, which was never very clear to me, but of course it just has to go muddle it up further. It’s unclear if Lucy is actually dead, which I assume she is, how long she’s been dead for, or how she died. Simon only finds out he’s related to her at the very end of the book, meaning that there is almost no time for him to deal with the fact that the Mage is his father. The man who killed one of his best friends, and nearly killed him, is his father. I feel like that would kind of shake up a person, but no. It’s discussed for, what, a paragraph? And then brushed over for the sake of “oh yay look new family”. One of my biggest peeves with the second book was that it didn’t really dive into any of the trauma that Simon and his friends almost definitely have, and this book is just more of the same. For a series that seems like it’s about what happens after the story ends, it seems to be obsessed with manufacturing more plot devices because how could a story ever not have a big bad villain trying to take over Silicon Valley or destroy the world of mages, or whatever it was Smith was trying to do in this book? I genuinely don’t know. It also felt like the author wanted to dive into the lore of vampires more, but only did so in casual conversation that we never get more than a couple lines of. No one actually outright says anything. It’s all hinted at in conversation by characters we already don’t trust.

Honestly, this book has so many problems that the only reason that it’s getting three stars instead of two and a half is that I was already attached to the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Infertility

starlessnights's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Self harm, Pregnancy, Murder, Medical content, Grief, Blood, and Animal death

mairallen1114's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

the perfect ending to the perfect series, truly shows the steps of healing from a trauma, and how changing doesn't mean the end of all old things. i definitely cried when i finished it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Cursing

Minor: Death of parent, Abandonment, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

death of a parent is mentioned in regards to baz's mother, simon's parents, and a new character's parents (who died in a car accident). abandonment is implied when

simon learns that davy must have been his real father, and he's having very broken up thoughts about what that means for him

. animal death and blood are mentioned as one of the main characters is a vampire. pregnancy and miscarriage are for a goat that appears later in the book.