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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.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Minor: Cursing
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail
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.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Sexual content
This is an eloquent lens into the world of pain, especially female pain. There is a deep desire in today’s society to suppress and forget about pain.
Miranda, the main character speaks about her perpetual agony and the widespread effects that it has had on her life. She also speaks on how the once smiling faces of people whom she loved, eventually became the coldest to her and her agony. I feel like this is something that gets overlooked in media. We want to believe that the people we love the most will always be there for us, but when it comes down to it even they can experience the taxing repercussions of pain.
I also IMMENSELY appreciated the theatrical aspects of this book. I have never read something that I could so vividly imagine being a film. I’m not just talking about the possibility of it being a film, but literally imagine it scene for scene. I adored that. Awad did an excellent job of incorporating aspects from both All’s Well and The Scottish Play, into something that breathed new life into Shakespeare. With that being said YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE FAMILIAR WITH EITHER PLAY OR EVEN SHAKESPEARE TO APPRECIATE THIS STORY. Albeit, it does help especially concerning the mysterious three men and their motives, but I have not read/seen All’s Well and I never felt lost of a moment. With that being said, I do intend to brush up on both plays in order to fully appreciate this work and all the hidden easter eggs in it.
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: Child death
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Abandonment
The main character, Miranda, suffers from chronic pain with no concrete answers as to what's causing it. As someone who has been suffering with chronic pain since I was a teenager, I found I could relate to Miranda in so many ways. I understood her on such a personal level that I almost cried. I will say that if you can't relate to or understand her, then you may end up finding her to be annoying or whiny. Her pain is a huge part of the story, so be prepared to hear about it constantly.
Through this story we essentially live inside Miranda's head. This means that it is written as someone's train of thought would be, so there are very short sentences quite often. There are also a lot of flashbacks about her past as people and places remind her of happier times in her life. This kind of blurs the lines between reality and the past.
If you've read Bunny, then you are familiar with Mona Awad's ability to write an ending where there are multiple interpretations to what actually happened. I personally love this, and you can expect the same in All's Well. For a good chunk of it, it seems like there's just one path, but the last third really opens up other doors to possibilities, and I am here for it !
if you enjoy stories with an unreliable narrator, that are strange and bizzare, and deal with someone fighting the system to be heard, then I would 100% recommend this book. It's truly a phantasmagoria of pain, loss, and the right to live.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Alcohol
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood