Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Friend

TW: suicide
This book really didn’t do it for me. Reading the synopsis beforehand was quite misleading - I went into this book expecting grief, but also expecting A LOT more of a lovely relationship of a woman and a dog (her dog). Although we do get brief glimpses into the narrator’s relationship with Apollo, that isn’t what this book is about. I found the meandering literature name drops a bit tedious after a while, and the relays of other suicides throughout history very grim. I get it - the main character has lost her friend to suicide and I completely understand that suicide will play a strong part in this novel; however, it got to the point where it was just downright depressing. I felt misled by all the descriptions of what the book was going to be about, and it wasn’t an enjoyable story. The prose and writing style is great, but the story itself lacks interest and is too upsetting.

Content Warnings

heather3879's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

1.5

From the rave reviews and book summary, I expected this to be a moving story about the love between a grieving woman and her dog. It was NOT that. There was a bit of a story about the loss of the writer’s friend and her subsequent caring for her friend’s dog - but there was so little development of the storyline or the characters that I found myself not caring at all about the writer, her friend, or even the dog. There was a lot of self-indulgent literary name dropping, complaints about writing students, and a collection of possibly-profound literary quotes with no exposition by the author. There were a few moments of clarity and insightful thoughts that COULD have been developed into an interesting essay or two - but the book was a disappointment.

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matilderavnholt's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

Was very excited to read this, but was very disappointed. It just wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the writing style and didn’t empathise with the characters - especially the misogynistic diseased friend of the main character.

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andcaitlin's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

merclarke's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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