Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - All's Well

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

All's Well by Mona Awad

18 reviews

soggymcflurry's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

This authors writing style is very interesting and addicting. This book was slow and difficult to read at times. The parts of the book that are real representations of life are depressing and challenging. The parts that are creative and mysterious are disturbing enough to make you read on. There’s a lot to unpack and think about.

Miranda’s descent includes a lot of stuff I didn’t care much about and struggled to connect to the story, and the end of the book was confusing at first. But overall a great read, especially for the chronically ill, the women filled with anger, people who have a small piece of them who desire revenge for the way the world has treated them, or fellow theater nerds.

Content Warnings

mrsaturn's review against another edition

4.0

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

oblemons's review against another edition

4.0

emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Tense tense tense!! Honestly though this seemed like a pretty basic experience of doing college theater (from the perspective of the actors).

Content Warnings

amandaraemor's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny sad tense 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

An intense, spiraling descent into the ways pain contorts our minds and bodies, and the ways in which the medical industry profits off of that pain. Miranda is definitely not a “good” person by any means, but you also can’t 100% hate her when seeing firsthand the abuse she suffers, major and minor, from every doctor or therapist she attempts to ease her suffering. Both the plot and characters are given more dimension through the two Shakespeare plays — All’s Well That Ends Well and Macbeth — that sit at its center, to the point where Miranda may as well be the tragic hero instead of the resourceful heroine she once portrayed on stage. I could write a whole thesis on the theater references alone!

Content Warnings

erwikka's review against another edition

3.5

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

I love the way Mona discusses real life issues in her books. She always adds a sort of magical realism to her works (I have only read 2) you never know what’s real and what’s “magic”. Her writing is so thought provoking, like this book dove into the misogyny of the health industry and the difficulties of living with chronic pain. I don’t wanna talk too much about the actual plot because I think that takes away from her stories and the weirdness that happens. I loved the theater aspects of this as a theater nerd myself. Also the moral questions and such that a brought up in this were spectacular. I highly recommend giving this author a chance.

Content Warnings

clarethomsen's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

chris_reads's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rrrose's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

stripes_and_naps's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

By the time I finished the first few paragraphs I knew I was hooked. The sardonic humor, paired with painfully relatable chronic pain representation set the tone for what truly was a wild ride. While I can admit that this book is not for everyone, I enjoyed the surreal elements as they kept me guessing. I also really enjoyed the references to Shakespeare. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of Kurt Vonnegut’s work or who loves a good antihero.

Content Warnings

chrstnlvly's review against another edition

3.5

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Although All's Well is classified as horror, similar to Bunny, but it could be more appropriately categorized under magical realism (or perhaps surrealism), just like Bunny.

This book confirmed my suspicion that Mona Awad will be an auto-buy author for me. Awad has indeed made it to my list of favorite authors because I have an affinity for the peculiar.

Articulating my thoughts on Awad's books is always a challenge, despite the excellence of her prose and storytelling. Rating All's Well was difficult as I found the ending slightly underwhelming. I sought more rage and a more unhinged narrative.

While I rate Bunny higher (I wish I could read that book for the first time again), All's Well is still a good read. It's just so frustrating for me to still not know what Miranda's, the main character of All's Well, mental health issue is, unlike in Bunny when it was clearly schizophrenia. However, maybe I'm overanalyzing and All's Well is merely about the dismissal of women's pain coupled with misogyny, even from women themselves.

Content Warnings

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