Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - The Grief Keeper

sweet romance, really interesting premise, definitely very YA feeling towards the end but super good for younger readers. the plot lost my interest in places but the characters and relationships were lovely.

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novelyon's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

The development of Marisol and Rey's relationship was sweet and I enjoyed their parallel arcs as they both discover how they should each tackle their own grief and trauma in a healthy way. The sisterly dialogue between Marisol and Gabi was written very well. The greatest strength of this book was the conversations; each character had a distinct voice and personality, and it was always a joy to just read about the characters talking.
While I enjoyed the characters' arcs and relationships, I found the plot itself to be a bit slow (especially in the beginning, with multiple chapters explaining how the grief transfer works, which doesn't feel very important as this book is very light sci-fi anyway), and the themes could've been touched on with a little more depth. For a novel where the protagonist is a brown immigrant being exploited for a privileged white girl, it lets off the characters that caused and perpetuated that exploitation surprisingly, and disappointingly, lightly. Not only that, but I wish the book dealt with Gabi's trauma more as well; both sisters have been through so much yet the novel doesn't quite touch upon Gabi as it does Marisol; there are many moments where Marisol goes "she's been through so much," yet there are very few moments outside of a precious few lines of dialogue that show that Gabi and some of her behaviors may be processing her own traumas as well.
The ending was also quite abrupt:

Like they're searching for Gabi and her friend Juliette at this party but it ends when Marisol just finds Gabi...where was Juliette LOL

Overall, a wonderful book to read if you are invested for the relationships between the characters, but if one wants to read a book that really dives into the heavy topic of US immigration policy and exploitation, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

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ziareads's review

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adventurous hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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courtneyfalling's review

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This made me cry multiple times. I'd call it primarily a sad, contemporary novel with speculative fiction elements to deepen the emotional side. All of the main characters feel drawn-out and almost blurry around their edges... it's a lot more about how things feel than who they are. Marisol especially is a complicated mix of fiercely stubborn and mostly passive or internal, which makes the book's pacing sometimes feel heavy. The beginning weighs down a lot, and then we finally get the bulk of important backstory and growth in the final chapters. I can't say I was ever enamored with Rey as a character or the budding relationship between her and Marisol, but they do have some lighthearted moments and I liked the deeper arc of Marisol letting go of her internalized lesbophobia. And the criticism of the US immigration system is very well-done

although I still feel like Indranie deserves a lot more comeuppance than she gets

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oliverreeds's review

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

i really enjoyed this book because the characters were very well-written; however, the plot seemed like a loose association to give the characters room instead of a fleshed out plot. the idea of being a "grief keeper" seemed important at the beginning but slowly lost it's importance. i thought that the story would be based around the main character taking more than one person's grief over the book, but she stayed with only one person which, to me, made the book feel incomplete. the addition of the flashbacks as well seemed inorganic. i don't know what they added to the main character, and i wanted to know more about gabi as well and how the past was affecting her. the climax of the book was also so close to the end and didn't leave time for proper emotional coping with the reality of the situation. however, i loved the characters so much! i feel like they operated like real people (even though i wish marisole had been more vocal to rey about things she was upset about) and i enjoyed the romance element that was added in. oh, and i also wish the side characters had been in more scenes. they were only in one, which i felt didn't make them important to the novel as a whole especially because they were such interesting characters.

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tahsintries's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

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gothicmoon's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

The Grief Keeper handles serious, difficult topics in a digestible manner for people the characters' age to understand. The writing is fluid and the plot simple with shocking touches, though the story itself doesn't quite linger after the book is over.

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tay_mackenziemac's review

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adventurous hopeful sad fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’m in the middle ground with this book. I think the premise was great but the plot kind of flopped a bit toward the end. I also think some of the character personalities changed drastically which was surprising. However , it’s a really interesting premise and it covers some really challenging content respectfully and with nuance.

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