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rosalind's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
3.5
Had high hopes for this as it has all the ingredients that sounded perfectly up my street. The concept was intriguing and I can’t lie, as a chronic pain sufferer myself, I found moments extremely cathartic. But the writing style really let it down for me; for the most part, it felt heavy-handed and lacking in the kind of subtle exploration I was hoping for.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Chronic illness
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, and Medical content
Minor: Pregnancy and Ableism
shannon_michelle's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
First, Mona Awad is a phenomenal writer, and I’ll definitely be picking up her other books. Second, this book weird and definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste. As a feminist and sufferer of chronic pain, this book spoke to me though. It’s a ride…expect magic and madness, tragedy and comedy, mania and depression. I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about this book for ages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness
Moderate: Alcohol and Drug abuse
Minor: Violence
ajoyn1201's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Cursing
Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Drug use
bmzttb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Drug abuse
Moderate: Alcohol
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
THIS BOOK. Wow. This was wild.
This book recreates chronic pain, ableism and healthism, and medical trauma very well. I'm not sure I've read another novel like this, especially not one staged with so many supernatural and thriller-like elements. The scenes between Miranda and her PT were excruciating and hyper-realistic. You can tell Mona Awad's had her own pain and disillusionment with the medical-industrial complex.
Miranda is an amazingly developed and flawed character, and reading through her perspectiveespecially as she becomes more frantic and manic throughout the book is captivating. The mix between supernatural mysticism and Shakespeare retelling is littered just enough to make the plot work, but Miranda, the harm done to her, and the harm she does take center stage.
Miranda's use of Brianna and Ellie as caricatures heightens the drama, especially early on, and I was cringing with Miranda's simultaneous pity and love-bombing of Grace. And the blurs between Paul and Hugo... oof. I feel like Miranda herself and Miranda's view on the people around her strayed close to stereotyping at points, but the narration was so carefully orchestrated to make that the scary point? Like, how ordinary this story is and how easily we can ignore the complexity and humanity of others? And the ending was really bittersweet with this slight zoom outward to all the women in chronic pain, potentially haunted in similar storylines. It wasn't too heavy-handed and it brought everything in the novel to an emotional and targeted end.
This book recreates chronic pain, ableism and healthism, and medical trauma very well. I'm not sure I've read another novel like this, especially not one staged with so many supernatural and thriller-like elements. The scenes between Miranda and her PT were excruciating and hyper-realistic. You can tell Mona Awad's had her own pain and disillusionment with the medical-industrial complex.
Miranda is an amazingly developed and flawed character, and reading through her perspective
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical trauma
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Drug use, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual violence and Alcohol
morriganslibrary's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Chronic illness
Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual content
elliesberrie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood
house_of_hannah's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Mona Awad is now a "must read" author for me. I have read both this and Bunny, and have been blown away at just how creative, weird, and amazing her stories are. The characters feel so real, and have so much depth to them that I feel like I know them personally.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Blood, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders
deedireads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
All’s Well is a weird, frustrating, trippy, impressive, darkly funny story about being a woman with chronic pain. The right readers will love it.
For you if: You like experimental novels and/or Shakespeare.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy of this book! I’m still not quite sure what I just read, but … in a good way? I haven’t read Bunny, but by all accounts, if you liked that one from Mona Awad, you’ll like this one too. It’s weird — almost psychedelic — darkly funny, and impressively crafted.
The book is about a theatre professor named Miranda Fitch, whose acting career was just taking off when she suffered injuries that still cause her terrible chronic pain today. She can’t walk, can’t sit, can’t live normally at all. But now it’s now been so long that everyone around her is starting to suspect that her pain is psychosomatic, and that she’s just not trying hard enough to get better. At work, she’s determined to stage “All’s Well That Ends Well,” but her headstrong students go behind her back to try to stage Macbeth instead. Then she goes to a dive bar and meets three strange men who seem to know her and her life, and they show her a “trick” — and everything changes.
This is one of those impressive books with a writing style that makes you feel exactly how the main character feels — frustrated and exhausted. It’s written in short sentence fragments that never feel resolved, that pull you through the text in short, stilting, never-ending bursts. We, as readers, are made to question what is real and what is not at every turn. The story spins and swirls around us as Miranda tips further and further over the edge. You’ll finish it and go … what did I just read?
So this book won’t be for everyone, but if you’re here for trippy, experimental novels (and Shakespeare references!), I think you’ll like this one. It’s crafted in a way that’s just so effective in tackling the subject of ablism, chronic pain, and the way society treats women with it.
TL;DR REVIEW:
All’s Well is a weird, frustrating, trippy, impressive, darkly funny story about being a woman with chronic pain. The right readers will love it.
For you if: You like experimental novels and/or Shakespeare.
FULL REVIEW:
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy of this book! I’m still not quite sure what I just read, but … in a good way? I haven’t read Bunny, but by all accounts, if you liked that one from Mona Awad, you’ll like this one too. It’s weird — almost psychedelic — darkly funny, and impressively crafted.
The book is about a theatre professor named Miranda Fitch, whose acting career was just taking off when she suffered injuries that still cause her terrible chronic pain today. She can’t walk, can’t sit, can’t live normally at all. But now it’s now been so long that everyone around her is starting to suspect that her pain is psychosomatic, and that she’s just not trying hard enough to get better. At work, she’s determined to stage “All’s Well That Ends Well,” but her headstrong students go behind her back to try to stage Macbeth instead. Then she goes to a dive bar and meets three strange men who seem to know her and her life, and they show her a “trick” — and everything changes.
This is one of those impressive books with a writing style that makes you feel exactly how the main character feels — frustrated and exhausted. It’s written in short sentence fragments that never feel resolved, that pull you through the text in short, stilting, never-ending bursts. We, as readers, are made to question what is real and what is not at every turn. The story spins and swirls around us as Miranda tips further and further over the edge. You’ll finish it and go … what did I just read?
So this book won’t be for everyone, but if you’re here for trippy, experimental novels (and Shakespeare references!), I think you’ll like this one. It’s crafted in a way that’s just so effective in tackling the subject of ablism, chronic pain, and the way society treats women with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Alcohol and Gaslighting
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