Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - All's Well

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

All's Well by Mona Awad

49 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

backpackbunny3's review against another edition

It hit perfectly for me, but I’m a disabled Shakespeare actor who loves magical realism so I’m about as close to the target audience as you can be. If it didn’t work for you that’s just how it goes, but I truly want everyone who reads this review to know that All’s Well is the most real depiction of chronic pain I’ve ever read. The only outlandish thing in these pages is the magic.

Content Warnings

kailynbee's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

cameron_esten's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I read this in one sitting and literally could not put it down—I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The best kind of fever dream!

Content Warnings

jamelynreads25's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A Shakespeare play within a Snakespeare play, a meditation on chronic pain and grief, a masterpiece of magical realism. I'm not even sure how to categorize this one.

Miranda (a clever Shakespeare reference in itself), a former actor who teaches theater in a failing department, faces a mutiny when she wants to put on All's Well that Ends Well instead of Macbeth. She is faced with crippling chronic pain from a stage accident and trying to cope when she meets three mysterious figures in her neighborhood bar who seem to have a cure for her maladies.

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

cynic_rising's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-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

Content Warnings

measlibrary's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I thought that this book was fantastic. I was really excited to read a book by Mona Awad & I have heard a lot about her writing being like a fever dream, & I totally agree. This book was so insane & anxiety inducing, haha. I loved the way she was able to weave together all of the elements present. She did such a great job at depicting what it is like to live with chronic pain/illness & it being hard for those who do not also experience it to believe it or understand it. “Invisible illnesses” can be so hard to both experience & be around. I absolutely related being chronically ill myself & was saddened to see Miranda feel so hopeless & sad in her life. I related absolutely to relationships being affected & just feeling awful all the time being exhausting on those around you as well. I thought Awad did a phenomenal job making that come across & showing how difficult it is for all parties involved, but especially the one experiencing the pain itself.

The magical realism/witchcraft element of this was also fantastically terrifying. I loved it & was also horrified by it. The concept of Miranda being able to give her pain to those who hurt her the most was diabolical but also amazing.

In the end, I really enjoyed this book. It did have a bit of a slow start & it was hard to follow/like a protagonist that was so caught in negativity & had basically given up, but by the end of the book she grows & learns & is a completely different person. I loved seeing her from the beginning of the book to the end. Miranda truly got to understand her pain in a new way & I was happy with how it all resolved. I rate this book 4.5/5 stars! 🌟

Content Warnings

danielatheinkdrinker's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

all’s well is mona awads portayal of chronic pain, she did wonderfully. i have fibromyalgia which is a chronic condition and i stopped myself more than once after i finished the book to make sense of this realization.
i am miranda. she is me.
it terrifies me, how i understand her pain all too well; however what terrifies me the most is: i wouldn’t doubt twice to take a trick. i. wouldn’t. think. twice.
this book; it’s fine, it’s ~~all well~~. how could it now be? why would it not be?

But not too much pain, am I right? Not too much, never too much. If it was too much, you wouldn't know what to do with me, would you?

Content Warnings

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