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Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

All's Well by Mona Awad

9 reviews

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.

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dark hopeful mysterious 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

I loved this all the way through to the end, which left me dissatisfied. It really spoke to me as an actor and a woman with chronic pain. The elements of Macbeth woven into the story were delicious. There were some cheekily haunting refrains and a brilliant sense of character in the protagonist and her friend. I just wish it had committed fully and not pulled the punches in the end - it felt very much like a horror, with a building sense of dread, but then blew the threat away to turn it into magical realism. Which, I guess if you're reimagining Shakespeare, isn't unlikely. It's just not a trope that fit the rest of the book.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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

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dark emotional funny informative reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character

wow, what can I really say other than wow. this book was so stunning and so emotional, literally JUST finished reading it. I feel everything for miranda; from fear, to joy, to sympathy, and I really can not help but love her and feel for her in the end. really this book is a treasure 

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slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I did not like this book.
There were a few nice pieces of writing, like the description of chronic nerve pain as "red webs", but mostly the writing felt clumsy, messy, and melodramatic. It has the feel of an edgy teenager's fanfiction, but not in a good way.
The plot feels very cliche but also doesn't resolve in a way that feels satisfying. It seemed like it was going to go in an interesting direction a few times, but then consistently took the most obvious and least interesting path.
There is also a bunch of weird moral implications? Maybe I'm missing something but the main character really seemed to be portrayed as a bad person for being unwell and angry about it. It was also peppered with fatphobia, and had a similar misogynistic undercurrent to Bunny. 
Also similar to Bunny, the implied experience of madness/psychosis/delusions felt very much how someone without much actual information or sensitivity around the subject would write it. Gave me the vibe of, again, am edgy teenager RPing as a ~crazy~ character. 
Overall disappointing. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark 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

All’s Well may be one of the weirdest book I have ever read, and I mean that in the best possible way. Any fan’s of the fever dream-esque atmosphere of Bunny will adore this novel, since the stream of consciousness writing amplified the feeling.
For any fans of character studies, Shakespeare, and darker stories, I would 100000% recommend.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious 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

Reading Mona Awad's books requires a certain amount of faith. It is a leap, in a way, to give yourself over to the extreme and the absurd so wholly. Is it worth it? Will I reach the end of the journey and wonder whether the journey even happened? I've certainly felt that way reading literature like this before. Bret Easton Ellis comes to mind. But after reading 'Bunny' and letting myself go along for the insane, quirky, ride, I knew what I was getting into when I started 'All's Well.'

I'm so glad I was able to put aside all of my concerns and preconceptions, and dive into this work. 'All's Well' is a story of magic, of witches, of the fantastical and the mundane. It's also, primarily, a story about living with chronic pain. How it feels to be rendered invisible to professionals and loved ones alike. How it transforms you. 

I think this book is an absolute masterpiece. I loved it even as I hated it. 

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