Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

10 reviews

imds's review

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Abandonment, Ableism, Car accident, Death of parent, Infidelity, Cancer, Grief, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Abortion, and Confinement

Minor: Antisemitism

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I'm worried I'm too emotionally invested at the moment to be writing this review; I don't know how to write about how this book made me feel without writing about the ending. I'll spoiler warning it at the end here, but just know that all spoilers in it are very vague.

Overall I liked this book. I knew absolutely nothing about it going in--not the premise, not the genre, nothing. I picked it solely based on the cover. Throughout the first half of it I just felt a sort of rising tension, as I waited for the shoe to drop. This book was well-written and while the ending devastated me, I don't think it should have been changed. 

This book makes me want to read more by this author, because I really liked how well it showed tiny social things that feel hard to capture/explain but can make a real impact on how a situation feels or a relationship progresses. Small things that Jean worries over momentarily, that just felt really well-done. 

Honestly the ending just is so sad. I wasn't prepared. I wish I'd paid more attention to the dates so that I could have seen it coming. It makes sense as a story but I'm just too close to these characters right now, I feel too sad for them. It made it so I couldn't give this book five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abortion, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Dementia, Infidelity, Medical content, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Lesbophobia, Cancer, and Incest

train accident

shonagh_catherine's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

This novel contained some of the most enchanting descriptions of domestic life - the descriptions cherished the 'simple pleasures' one may find in the most seemingly banal tasks and there is something about that which is simply enchanting. 

The character studies and relationships are natural and drag the reader into the story with our emotions being strung along watching these relationships develop. The variety of mother-daughter relationships explored and ultimately juxtaposed are enlightening, reassuring, and somewhat familiar to read. 

However, whilst I enjoyed large parts of this book I have some issues with how the plot developed: specificall  I was uncomfortable with the use of and treatment of certain characters who represent some marginalised groups within society who eneded up used as plot devices and were treated somewhat distastefully.

As for the last chapter... well I think ultimately that chapter is open to what the reader brings to it - I would argue the reader is invited to write their own ending to the novel (whether it be optimistic or not.) That being said I appreciate the issues many readers have felt with the final chapter which nearly seems to swallow whole and distort the optimism of the previous chapter.

Overall the novel has some gorgeous prose, littered with delicate descriptions of domestic life and the importance of friendships especially for those who are isolated. However, the novel also has some harsh interjections of crule reality and it reminds the reader that there may be a more sinister side to life which I found jarring at times given the over all tone of the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Ableism

spookyaz's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.25

I liked the writing and descriptions and all of the little details. I did not like the treatment of queer and neurodivergent people in this book- very underdeveloped and full of harmful stereotypes and such. That being said, I guess I didn't really expect anything more from most fiction books unless they're explicitly written by/for queer/neurodiverse folks. Sad but true. I also did not like how the romance took over the plot from the original mystery. The ending I found jarring and very much an "excuse me???" moment. Not to say that it was necessarily a completely bad ending. The plot twists were not things I saw coming, but that's a usual thing with me. I don't know if I'd recommend this book to people, to be honest- I might have to sit with my thoughts a bit more.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia, Ableism, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Abortion, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma

sara_olivia's review

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Rape, and Death

Minor: Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Antisemitism

alisonannk's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Abortion, Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Body shaming, Dementia, Outing, and Toxic relationship

cbrooks288's review

slow-paced

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Rape

sophie_kean's review

emotional mysterious 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

2.75

- The ending - I found unneccesary and frustrating alongside all the unfinished plotlines in the book
- All of it was pretty predictable
- I found most of the characters that we spent time with a bit dry (I would have loved it if we got some actual insight into 
- The depiction of lesbians??? I mean. It had the potential to be such an interesting and exciting plot but it just became a brief, fairly tragic side plot with a good dose of stereotypical lesbian villainization.
- I did enjoy bits of it - I think it just wasn't the story I wanted to read.  The story was set up with a really interesting premise and I had so much hope for the potential characters and relationships, but it just focused on the things that I a) don't care about  b) have heard before or c) found offensive (and I don't think just because it's set/marketing itself as historical fiction)

- Other people seem to love it so I'm sure it was doing many things right (I enjoyed the writing, the characters at the start, moments of the mother/daughter relationship discourse) but there was too much that was predictable, dull and low-key offensive for me to properly enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Ableism, Lesbophobia, and Rape

mondayisms's review

relaxing fast-paced

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

3.0

This book had too many plot points that didn’t thread together as cleverly as the author may have hoped. The main character was snooze-boring and everyone else was not handled with care. Mostly, the only reason I kept reading was to get confirmation on what really happened (predictable), and the explanation and reveal was also handled so, so poorly.

Finally, the ending was really out of place and rushed. The “shock” had no value and belonged to a completely different book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Rape, and Sexual violence

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, Mental illness, Cancer, Medical content, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Abortion, Infertility, Confinement, Dementia, and Rape

Moderate: Body shaming and Ableism

Minor: Infertility, Incest, Medical trauma, and Mental illness