Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Alcohol
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Chronic illness, Gaslighting
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Death of parent
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness
Moderate: Death of parent
Graphic: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent
the way this book is set up is to function as a retelling of all’s well, the play being put on during the book. i’m not too familiar with all’s well that ends well but from what i’ve gathered, it does it adequately. but a part of me wonders why it even bothered at all, considering it had nothing new to contribute. i feel like if you’re going to create a retelling of a shakespearean play and put your own spin on it, you should at least have something to say.
the main on going theme throughout this book is pain (physical and emotional) but with the odd pacing, and overwhelming plot that got a bit lost in the noise. i feel like mona actually had really insightful things to say, but she tried to make a metaphor a plot, (which can absolutely be done and done well, writers do it all the time, i just don’t think it was here) and then it just went off the rails.
the plot builds to an immense degree, to the point where the ending just feels lackluster. i usually don’t mind an open ended finish but i don’t think it was executed to its fullest potential here. at the end of it all i was left thinking “ok now what? why did we do all of that?”
and that’s really the question i have about the novel as a whole. what was the point? i feel like there may have been one at some moment or another, or popping in and out, but it drowned in the sea of weird. this book has several hundred pages and manages to say too much and not enough at the same time.
the writing style, reflective of miranda’s mental state, is longwinded and repetitive. i didn’t mind this much, but there were several times where my eyes glazed of the descriptions because it became too much.
i think this review gives off a harsher view of this book than i have. i did actually enjoy this, and it’s a total page turner. mona awad is in excellent writer and i do plan to read more from her. but this book wasn’t what i thought it would be coming into it, and even while reading it. if you wanna have a fun, weird, worrying, time and have a background metaphor for pain weaved in throughout, you should read it.
it’s not a bad book in the least, but at the end of it i came away feeling “that’s it?”
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent
Graphic: Chronic illness, Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief
Minor: Violence, Death of parent
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail