Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

7 reviews

liemannen's review

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? Yes

3.5

Small Pleasures is about trying to seperate duty from pleasure, logic from emotion - and failing to do so when the heart wins over the head. The prose was quite enjoyable, and carried a sense of peeking into another persons intimate private life. 

I would have rated it a clean 4/5, although i found myself rather unsatisfied with the ending. 

After an eternity of will they won't they, a lesbian elopement, and the reveal that the "virgin birth" was the result of rape during drug-induced sleep... It ends with the love intrest dying in a train crash. After the heaps and heaps of misery the book piled up towards the end, I felt this was a lazy and unfulfilling write-off. Oh well.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug use, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, and Rape

rowan4444's review

emotional funny hopeful relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• 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

I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, and Miscarriage

ilovebooks2007's review

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Miscarriage

vinnyvince's review

emotional hopeful mysterious relaxing sad slow-paced

• 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Homophobia

Minor: Chronic illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, and Mental illness

molliepop's review

lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Intriguing premise of plot was overtaken by tedious romantic drama. Easy to read stylistically but hard to pin-point a distinctive genre - neither a mystery nor tragedy.
Chambers's insensitive depiction of lesbian relationships/characters and the author's thoughtless handling of a quite irrelevant ending is what to be remembered from this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

epellicci's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I found Small Pleasures - set in and around 1950's London - to be a slow paced, tension building book. It took me until a little over 50% of the way through to feel truly invested in the story, and even then I struggled to feel attached to the characters.

Jean was pitifully transparent, and I found her resentment towards various other characters annoying and undignified. I also thought that the focus on Gretchen was surprisingly slim. As the initiator of the case I was expecting her to be far more central in the writing - however I did enjoy the way that Chambers revealed her history via Jean's investigation.

I was really disappointed by the ending, and found it jarringly disconnected from the rest of the story - defeating the point of the much of the drama and previous events of the book. But then I suppose that was somewhat the point. The theme of fragility, the at times hopelessness of the human condition, and darkness was present throughout - the lightness of family life and romance far more fleeting. In the end, I found Small Pleasures somewhat lackluster but appreciated the examination of human nature all the same. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, and Miscarriage

Minor: Misogyny, Lesbophobia, and Infidelity

kirstyplumb's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Homophobia, Infertility, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia