Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Die Musik der Wale by Wally Lamb

16 reviews

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow. I honestly can’t believe this book was written by a man. Dolores’ narration and story are complex, unforgiving, raw, intense, upsetting, inspiring, and unnervingly prescient 25 years later.

Dolores felt real to meAt moments I was rooting for her, hoping for her to get back on her feet and past her trauma, at other times I saw myself in so many facets of her: her own trauma, her self loathing and compulsive overeating, her violent swings between self preservation and self destruction. I saw myself in her healing journey too, how she needed to open herself up to others to receive the love she deserved. There are some ugly (spiritually) characters in many of Lamb’s novels, but these felt particularly heinous and contemptuous, and Lamb handles these characters and their motivations with acuity and hardness, but doesn’t glorify or indulge in the horrors they inflict. 

If I had to pair a fiction and nonfiction duo of books, I would pair this with “The Body Keeps the Score”.  I think that speaks more to how on the nose and sensitive Lamb is to a wide range of life struggles and how he’s able to communicate that entire range through his complicated narrator than any words I could put down. 

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

  • beautifully written. Didn't not enjoy most of the story. This novel follows Delores from a young age to her midthirties, with all the ups and downs of divorce, abuse, death, grief, and mental and physical health struggles. I enjoyed many of the side characters more than the main character, who was a little too weird for me. This is not an easy read if that's what you're looking for but does provide for good conversation. I may have been influenced but the narrator's voice since I listened but I don't know that I would have finished if I didn't. 


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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

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challenging emotional funny hopeful sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this book at a friend’s request, expecting to hate it. The blurb on the back cover immediately signals that it’s going to be fatphobic. To my surprise, I ended up enjoying it. It’s definitely fatphobic, and the author clearly has no idea what a 250 pound person looks like (he describes her as unable to fit in desks or through car doors, which is ridiculous). However, it’s a really heartfelt view of mental health, and finding hope when life keeps pushing you down in horrible way. I grew to love the main character a lot more than I thought I would, especially given how much she bothered me at the beginning. 

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
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

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