Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

20 reviews

jeleigh16's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to absolutely love this book. I enjoyed it, but there were things about it that kept me from giving this 5 stars. The main issue I found was the consent issue. There was more than one character forcing themselves on another character in the name of teenage lust. If the book didn't have that element or they'd more strongly communicated about that difficulty in their relationships, I would have had an easier time with it. The representation of various experiences of these teens during the late 80s/early 90s in NYC during the AIDS epidemic was well done though and the ending does bring the themes together nicely. It certainly showcased what it means to learn to be a part of this thing we call community.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Excrement, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death, Death of parent, Bullying, Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Hate crime, Chronic illness, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Grief, Outing, Medical content, and Racism

Minor: Gun violence

antidietleah's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Hate crime and Vomit

I

greenlivingaudioworm's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Death, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

ranjanireviewsreads's review

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Hate crime, Misogyny, Cursing, Medical content, Grief, Police brutality, and Death

mattyb's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Terminal illness, Grief, Death, Hate crime, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Medical trauma, Bullying, Islamophobia, Medical content, Outing, Police brutality, and Sexual content

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Vomit, and Violence

m_hates_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

4/5 Absolutely heartbreaking. 

A queer, first-love romance, but set in 1989 New York and based in the AIDS crisis - it’s one of the most moving books I’ve read. It’s been sat on my bookshelf since I originally came out in 2020, and I never bothered to read it until now. Im actually glad I didn’t read it when I first got it, bc I don’t think I would have been able to appreciate the imagery and symbolism as well.

The tri-perspective approach really works well- nobody’s the main character, it’s about how what happens effects all of them, the entire community. 

The reason it’s not a five star read, for me, was because I felt the writing lacked balance. The first half of the book was very cute and bubbly (or as cute and bubbly as it gets when your book is a queer romance set in 1989 New York) and all the very deeply emotional and moving scenes kind of happened together. It’s hard to explain, and I don’t want to criticise it too harshly because it is an incredibly beautiful story that the author has very obviously put their entire heart and soul into, but it felt like some passages were missing the spark that made the rest of it so great. 

Not my usual thing, but I’m glad I read it, and I’m glad it exists because I know just how meaningful it is and will be to so many people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Outing, Police brutality, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcoholism

candaceallison's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Toxic relationship

emordnilap's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-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? Yes

5.0

beautiful book
must read for teenagers
we don’t know our history the way we think we do
i fucking love epilogues and i love writing them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Homophobia

Moderate: Death of parent

bootsmom3's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent

greenie_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

A very powerful story about queer life in the 80s-90s and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I loved the character of Stephen and Art especially. However, the politics could come across a bit heavy handed at points, where it felt like more of a transcript of an activist speech than a felt/experienced reality for the characters. Mostly, it was very good.

Some of the storylines also felt overly cliche:
Spoiler 1. The "love triangle" between Judy, closeted Reza and Art was kinda overdone. I could see it coming from a mile away and was dreading it. It wasn't satisfying. I'm frankly tired of people blowing up friendships over love triangles in every single story and Iwish there'd been more nuance and creativity to it. 
2. Stephen's death. We all knew it was coming, but it was such a typical "death of the mentor father figure" situation. Why not have the nice person with a horrible disease live for once? 
3. Art leaving Reza. Not only was this disappointing from an "obligatory tragic layering to YA novel ending" sense but it was also a really unsatisfying way to end Art's development. Judy and Reza significantly changed as people, but Art never does. He begins angry and impulsive and ends in a similar way. We never know what becomes of him except for vague hints. He ends up feeling like more of a means for Reza to change than as a person on his own. Perhaps his idealism could've been tempered by cynical realism, and he'd have been willing to take advantage of his parents' college money to enact change from within the system. As much as I loved this story I was disappointed by Art's lack of development in the end, because he was my favorite character. 

I'm sorry if this slight bit of ranting makes it seem like I didn't enjoy the book, or had serious issues with it. I only complain about it so passionately because I love it so much. It's certainly one of my favorite books that I have ever read, one of the most powerful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Fatphobia and Death of parent