Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Memorial by Bryan Washington

29 reviews

emmelinelc's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Abandonment, Racism, and Sexual content

elles_bells_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I felt like the writing was clever and showed such a deep understanding of human emotion. However I did fint it hard to connect with the characters and I found it hard to understand them. This book was an excellent study in compassion, complex family relationships 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Violence and Domestic abuse

kirani's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Cancer, Cursing, and Homophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Fatphobia, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Body shaming, Racial slurs, and Classism

hollieadaw's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Cancer

Minor: Abandonment

henrisaurous's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Abandonment, and Homophobia

alonadadonut's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a book about people who are really bad at expressing love. Like, *so* bad at it. I wanted to yell at the protagonists at least 20 times throughout the book. It was cruel and raw and deceptively dry and I couldn't look away. Loved Mitsuko, what an icon. Would recommend to anyone who likes it when books tears their heart out and stomps on it. 
Not 5 stars because the book ends on a sort of cliffhanger and I would prefer to know what ends up happening. On the one hand I understand why we don't get told what happens and on the other hand I desperately require closure.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, and Racial slurs

kaii's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

this book made me sob on not one, but two, german trains

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Cancer, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Medical content

Minor: Infidelity, Racial slurs, Fatphobia, Grief, and Body shaming

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

memorial is an original, funny, and bittersweet book abt family, love and pain, whose second section sees washington achieve a rare feat of a western author writing like a japanese one - in that particular 'vignettes of life's small yet huge moments' way.

the characters are deeply - some surprisingly - flawed and layered; there's no 'good' ppl here bc everyone's fcked up in one way or another. im a lil amazed at how washington handles the characterization and adeptly shows how everyone's been on both sides of being hurt and doing the hurting.

in addition to being quite funny - mike's and ben's parents are bemusingly acerbic and surprising - this book's also got a lot of heart, esp in regards to its theme of family, w/ mike and eiju's complex relationship being a particularly heartrending one. a sense of melancholy and bittersweetness permeates throughout the aforementioned second section, evoking the slice-of-life quality often found in jpn lit. i view this as a great accomplishment as it's sth so rarely achieved in western lit, let alone by a man from texas. the importance and prevalent presence of food in the story is also sth i rly like, calming while acting as a bridge between the characters, while also displaying washington's deep knowledge of jpn culinary culture.

i enjoy this book for its acerbic humor, messy characters, melancholic tone, and the exploration of its themes, particularly that in this life, everyone - even ur seemingly perfect parents - is just winging it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abandonment, Alcoholism, and Body shaming

sorcha's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Grief, Homophobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Cursing

agnesg's review against another edition

reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Homophobia