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fkshg8465's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Self harm, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death
silodear's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A heartbreaking story of family love and loss. Beautiful written and gorgeously read by the narrator. I savored this book in an unusually slow way. It was good.
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, and Death
rhymeswithpurple's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
mynameisvesper's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
This all just felt honest, it hurt, it truly resonated with me- these little conversations we all had with family members in face of hardships, the impossible questions one asks themselves when a loved one keeps spiralling down, the frustration and fear when they are sick in the hospital, the way that grief comes and goes and how hard it is to move on (the passage about ‘shredding the guilt’ really struck me).
Toews serves beautiful prose, so authentic and sincere it almost feels like eavesdropping.
“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard”
Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Self harm
Moderate: Medical content, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Death
storia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicide and Death
butlerebecca's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Death of parent
abbruzzese's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
She says isn’t it funny how every second, every minute, every day, month, year, is accounted for, capable of being named—when time, or life, is so unwieldy, so intangible and slippery? This makes her feel compassion toward the people who invented the concept of “telling time.” How hopeful, she says. How beautifully futile. How perfectly human.
another winner from miriam toews! it did not do to me emotionally what a complicated kindness or irma voth did, but it is still a fantastic book. i think what kept me from fully connecting to the story was just the age of the characters; being a 20 means i find it hard to relate fully to adults. however, that did not prevent me from crying all my mascara off.
a warning for anyone sensitive to suicide: this book has a lot of it. it's a main theme, written explicitly at times, and it's unavoidable. so just a heads up if you're wary about that kind of stuff!
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Medical content, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, and Sexual content
Minor: Eating disorder
vanesst's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Sexual content
tarajoy90's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Suicidal thoughts
rieviolet's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.75
There were parts, here and there, that I liked but I felt as if the narration lost itself along the way; some sections I found very slow or just plain weird and nonsensical.
I struggled with the writing style the most, I think it is just a case of it not being my cup of tea. I found it confusing, a bit all over the place, I could not get used to it, especially the way the dialogues were integrated into the text and not signalled by punctuation.
Getting into it, I knew the book would deal with difficult and heavy topics, it's not as if I was expecting a lighthearted reading experience but still, it was a lot more graphic than I expected and at times unnecessarily so. If suicide is a difficult topic for you to read about, I suggest being kind to yourself and staying away from this book altogether.
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexism, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death, and Medical content
Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
Minor: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Cancer, and Murder