Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Friend

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

81 reviews

sonjs's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved Sigrid Nunez’s intimate writing style. The narrator felt like a close friend telling me a story. A Harlequin Great Dane is a major character in this story about love, friendship , the mystery and pain surrounding suicide , and grief. I rarely read books a second time but this one I will . I’m also going to read her new book The Vulnerables .

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kaitidid's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

5.0

Not a classic dog book. More about grieving a flawed individual, and about writing itself. If you’re looking for “Marley and Me”, this isn’t it. But what it is is strange and wonderful.

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beatrice_readsforonce's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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todelisus's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

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gummybeans's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Amy Hempel-esque autofiction/metafiction that cut straight to the bone.

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katie_arce's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

2.25

According to the synopsis, this is about a woman and a dog she ends up adopting after her friend passes away. I’m a dog person, and an award winning book about dogs and grief sounded good to me. But…it’s really about writing and being a writer which, no offense to writers, is boring for the average person to read about. 🙃 There is no plot to be found and it is rambling stream of consciousness most of the time. I also cannot stand the womanizing, cliche, old white English professor who killed himself that the main character (and the dog) are grieving. He’s gross. Halfway through, l’d say that maybe 1/6 of it is about dogs. Maybe. So I decided to skip over anything that wasn’t about the dog. I skipped a lot. What I did read about the dog I really liked. The book is not bad. Just not really my style and not as advertised.

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mel510's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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icarusandthesun's review against another edition

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funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

charming—i'm pleasantly surprised! i impulse-bought this book even though the synopsis didn't particularly speak to me, and i'm honestly really glad i did.

- there was lots of talk about books and the act of writing and writing as a form of art (a given since both main characters are writers), which i, as a writer myself, throughly enjoyed, but i can definitely see how that's not a relatable topic for everyone.

- the book's quite funny at times, and what i found especially entertaining was the upbeat writing style constantly being paired with incredibly grave topics.

- the characters weren't lovable at all imo (except for the dog, ofc), but rather just plain interesting to observe.

- the feminist commentary (if you can call it that?) was confusing as hell. like it was sort of feminist but then some lines weren't at all—quite the opposite. idk, it was confusing.

- the plot... was basically non-existent. no plot, just vibes is all. i guess there was a plot twist, but that one was just really unnecessary. it wasn't impactful at all, because it didn't actually change anything. it wasn't some sort of great revelation that would make the reader feel betrayed, it didn't make the reader feel anything, really.

another point of criticism i have is that most of the book's depth comes from quoting other authors. the narrator references other authors and works like every other page and i found that most of the lines i underlined/annotated were just said quotes. so i'm wondering a little bit—how much did nunez actually add to the depth and grade of profundity of her own book?

something i also want to mention, even though a few other reviews have already done so, is that the book doesn't live up to its synopsis... so if you expect the things in the synopsis it's invariably going to be a little underwhelming, if not disappointing.

but i personally really enjoyed it nevertheless—perhaps even *because* it was so different from what i had expected (since, as i've already said, the synopsis didn't really speak to me anyway.)

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morganthecarrot's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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readingpicnic's review against another edition

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4.0

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