Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

26 reviews

jayisreading's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

2.5

I’ll be very honest— I would never have bothered picking this novel up if it weren’t for the fact that it was selected for a book club I somewhat recently joined. Reading the synopsis, there wasn’t anything that particularly stood out to me, so I had low expectations. This ended up being the right call, as I didn’t feel disappointed or felt that my time was wasted. I didn’t find Small Pleasures especially remarkable in either narrative or characters, but this is definitely more a matter of personal interest than anything. I think some readers may find the mystery and eventual romance compelling, and I will say that it is refreshing to have a struggling protagonist who is somewhat older (forty, if I’m remembering correctly). And, to Chambers’ credit, I did like her prose enough. She took a rather quiet and restrained approach that was slightly reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro, and I thought she did a good job maintaining that tone while still being able to capture the intense emotions that Jean (the protagonist) felt.

Before reading, I decided to check the reviews out, and I was surprised to see a relatively large number of reviewers who criticized the ending. This somewhat colored my reading experience, especially because I was keen to find out why so many people disliked it. All I can say is that if an afterword is required to explain the ending, then something needs to be reworked (and I will say the ending was unsatisfying). That being said—and to kind of defend the author—I can kind of see why she made this decision, especially considering that she did some foreshadowing at the very start of the novel. Another critique I have that I didn’t see as many people address was how the author decided to handle a lesbian relationship. I didn’t like that it was used as a plot twist, along with the fact that it was somewhat villainized (to me, at least).

I would say take this review with a grain of salt, considering the circumstances that led to me reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Abortion

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexism, Rape, and Medical content

Minor: Cancer, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and War

nesilla's review

lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death, and Cancer

Moderate: Rape

mpeach's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cancer, Rape, and Sexual assault

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

laurennicole98's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Confinement

Minor: Cancer, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, and Mental illness

sundaybookclub's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Infidelity, Death, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Confinement, Pregnancy, and Rape

Minor: Cancer

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

teaselkie's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cancer, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Abortion, Infertility, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent, Body shaming, Sexism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy

steamybob's review

emotional lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Pregnancy

biareads100's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I'm so mad at this book. I hate it and love it at the same time. First of all the experience of reading this book was painful, the predictable plot, the pace how dark it was. But if you asked me to talk about this book now that I finished it i could talk for hours. I love the way it presented all the issues it raised. It truly made me think. Life comes with good things and bad things and we are here for the ride.

it talks about being a spinster, having the perfect societal life that you hate vs not having the perfect societal life and hating your life, having to take care of your parents more than they did of you( and the mother the real villain of the story egoism, being lonely yet never being free, being loved but never being able to love back, amazing amazing. We need to talk about the ending. Based on the dark ending of the miracle birth we can assume Howard's story took the darkest route. They did leave the Gretchen story open ended, as that guy was never sure to be the father so Howard could be injured or one of the survivers but again the book doesn't shy away from pain. Still i would've hoped after such a biter sweet book not to get the literal worst ending. Also nice nod to the fact he felt old like it's a bad thing when some people arent blessed to get to that age.

i can talk volumes about this book but the ending and the pacing would make me not recommend it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Chronic illness, Confinement, Car accident, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Dementia

Minor: Rape