Reviews

Boca Raton by Lauren Groff

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kuryakinn's review

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adventurous challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

heather_lt's review

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challenging dark reflective sad 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

3.0

If you're feeling particularly down in the dumps, please don't read this. It's a brutal insight into how depression and anxiety can consume you. The story follows a young, single mother who at the beginning of the story discovers several ducklings who died having consumed plastic. Already concerned about the climate and environment, on top of worrying about whether or not her daughter's father survived the twin hurricanes that ripped through his city, the protagonist's mental health is thrown into a downward spiral.

I can't decide if I liked this or not. The way the author uses climate change and depression interchangeably was clever, but I really didn't warm to the protagonist and it made it difficult to sympathise with her. It's such a short story with huge topics which, in my opinion, falls somewhat short.

dreamingofceladon's review

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1.0

1.5 stars? It was difficult to rate this.
I would like to propose a fund to get therapy for every one of Lauren Groff's mom characters. Granted, I've only read this and the Florida collection, but it seems like there's a direct correlation in the stories between having children and being manically depressed. With a subtle revelation at the end, everything that happens prior comes into a new light, but the story still fell flat for me. Because I was reading the story without this knowledge, Ange just seemed over-the-top and annoying.

mybestfriendsarefictional's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This was a weird one for sure. Definitely not enjoying this mini series as much as the 'Forward' collection.

krmathyb's review

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3.0

This is the 2nd book in the Amazon collection of short stories called Warmer. Each story is somehow related to climate change.

The premises of the story involves a mother with anxiety over the impending effects of climate change and her fears for her daughter mixed with the silent uncontrollable character, insomnia. She feels that she has little to no control of her life and is struggling to keep it all together. As her time without sleep increases, readers will watch her day to day life and grip on reality start to falter and her worries over the affects of how climate change will affect her daughters future increases.

This is a quick read. It might shed some insight on climate change that you might not have thought of before, especially when it comes to parenting in a climate change world or how climate change might affect those that come after us.

Warning: This story does not have a happy or clean cut ending (which please note, I am totally ok with). I think the author was trying to go for an ambiguous ending (which I normally love), however, the ending to me did not feel ambiguous. It didn’t seem to fit, it felt more like their was more to be said before ending, or the ending wasn’t coming to the author so they just decided to leave it there.

Please Note: I received a free copy of this book and I am publishing an unbiased review.