Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

31 reviews

moabgirlie's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I only chose this because Tom Hanks narrates and everyone I know who’s read/heard it loved it. I immediately was interested in the story as he told it, but had to look up what it was even about.  I’m unsure if I would have actually read it, certainly not in 3 days and not likely at the top of my TBR but I’m so glad I got the audio! It is such a touching story but not sure I would have made the same decision as Maeve at the end.  


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jhansell's review against another edition

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reflective sad
  • 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? No

4.0


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skylarkblue1's review against another edition

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reflective 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? Yes

2.0

I'll be honest, this was a 1 star until May got a voice and she alone bumped it up to 2 stars lmao. This was a slog of a read with no point and just petty family drama with a shitty step-mother.

The characters are just a nightmare filled with hate, even at the end there's not *that* much character progression between them it's more just "I don't even care anymore" and I felt the same. I disliked essentially all the characters except May and the 2 sisters who took care of the kids at the start. May absolutely didn't read like she was a child for most of it and I honestly had no idea what age she was at any given point (though that goes for most of the characters honestly, more on that later). Characters were just stuck in a rut and didn't really change.

The way time was presented was very confusing. It starts with the 2 siblings as children, and ends with them old. But the timeline is not linear, it'll just randomly skip around without warning for not really any reason. One moment the main character is a teenager, the next sentence is "I got married with 2 kids" and then back to him being a teen again. It feels like it hops around it's timeline more than zelda hops around it's timelines. I barely knew what year it was or how old the characters were unless it was explicitly said - which it wasn't always.

Despite there really not being much that happens, it's incredibly predicable. It's very "oh man this shouldn't happen or this will happen!" and hammers that home until it happens because who'd have seen that coming! Overall it honestly just feels pretty flat. If you dislike even 1 character, you're not going to have a fun time as every character shows heavily throughout (and some of the worst ones even attempt to have a redemption arc).

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beankels's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a quality book but it didn’t exactly draw me in. The characters aren’t exactly likable, but that’s the point. As an audiobook, it was originally a little difficult to figure out what era of their lives we were jumping to, but it didn’t end up being a problem as I got more familiar with the plot and characters. I ended up enjoying it more than I expected at the beginning. 

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sarah_amy's review against another edition

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

2.0

Tom Hank's narration scores most of the points in this novel. I love his art of storytelling. However, I found the story itself uninteresting. The characters had plenty of substance; I liked the relationship between the brother and sister in particular, but the plot itself was quite unmoving. 2 siblings unable to move forward from the past until they eventually do.

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natalie027's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.0

I love that this story isn't told in a linear way. It jumped around in a way that kept me captivated, but it was always crystal clear where we were in the timeline - I was never confused about what was happening, which I was impressed by. The characters all felt unique and real enough that I was invested in (and frustrated by) their choices. 

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my_weird_bookish_heart's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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susannah_knox's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0


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adeperi's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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? Yes

3.5


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viertelvorvier's review against another edition

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

4.0


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