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moodreaderlesbian's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Homophobia, Blood, Vomit, and Grief
lipstickitotheman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Suicide attempt
aangult's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I think if I read this book a couple of years ago, it would have been revolutionary to me. I liked how Violet’s complicated family history, Sam’s mental health, Liv’s and Violet’s sexualities and the group’s friendship were handled, and I’m glad this book exists for all the little queer drama kids out there, it just wasn’t for me at this point of my life.
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
georgiak15's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Suicide
Minor: Homophobia
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The Last True Poets of the Sea is a book about grief. It’s about history. It’s about trauma. It’s about how people carry those things with them from generation to generation. It has some beautifully complicated and at times tragic sibling relationships. It has a teen sapphic romance that feels realistic for the characters and where they are in their lives.
It also has most of the things that one might expect from a Twelfth Night retelling: A love triangle, a shipwreck, a character named Toby, twins…
But all of those parts of the story are remixed to a degree that didn’t really make sense to me. The shipwreck and the twins (and the gender stuff) are in the past. The love triangle is completely different because Violet falls for Liv first and Orion is for some reason straight. Toby is Violet’s uncle rather than Liv’s. Most of the subplots are cut completely, which makes sense but was still sad (well, I didn’t really miss Malvolio, but I wanted a proper Sir Andrew character, goddammit!).
The book still works despite these changes to the source material, and they were obviously make deliberately. They just bugged me as a fan of the original play who enjoys seeing new takes on it.
I also have a couple little nitpicks:
Liv refers to herself and Violet as anagrams. This makes sense thematically, but the names Violet and Olivia are NOT anagrams. This was very confusing because the author could have actually given them names that used all of the same letters!
Also, this is a very white book. It makes sense because it’s set in small-town Maine—maybe the whitest part of the US—but why was Violet always remarking on the fact that random side characters were white people when she and all the other characters were also white people? Very odd.
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia
averyrembish's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Medical content, Outing, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
audreyreadz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Alcohol
rachelcotter1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt
seaslugchloe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
yvonne_cl'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
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
Moderate: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer