Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

3 reviews

_inge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This book gripped me from the second I started it. I really enjoyed the first half; Alva’s story was a great coming of age story, Lu Fang’s story felt less captivating to me, as it didn’t really tell me anything new and was too focused on whether he’d get into a relationship or not. Gradually Lu Fang’s character changed and his story therefore did get more interesting for a while. The writing is quite good too, though sometimes a bit too descriptive for me. Some words got repeated quite a lot too, like ‘squirt of sperm’ or ‘partner’, meaning those words lost their emotional meaning quickly. But still, I initially found this a captivating read. 

Unfortunately, about midway through both Alva and Lu Fang’s storylines got too bleak for me. In the first half there’d be hope for better times, but as both Lu Fang and Alva face traumatic experiences that hope got lost. At certain points it felt like the author was piling on misery to get the story to continue, even though what I’d enjoyed in the first half was the subtle frictions or discussions on identity. How Alva is perceived in her school environment was really interesting to read about, as was seeing how she perceived herself. This got lost in the traumatic events that unfolded in the second half.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Rape, Child death, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Car accident, and Physical abuse

kaddictwithapen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Toxic friendship, Racism, Self harm, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, War, and Violence

sarahsthoughtsonbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Child death, and Racism

Moderate: Racism, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Child death, and Abandonment