Reviews tagging 'Grief'

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

55 reviews

hstcrow's review

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Reading this felt like holding my breath for five days. Wtf. Very intense, overwhelming, and jolting in terms of the realistic story & crime, and the alarming clarity of how broken the judicial system is, how tight a chokehold the patriarchy, class, and race have on our society. The ending was so perfect and clever. It’s supposed to reflect reality. This is such an incredible feat of a book. Hell yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Death, Murder, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Blood, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Grief, Misogyny, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Car accident, and Death of parent

summerofsoaps's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Death, Bullying, Murder, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Body shaming, Racism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Car accident

phantompansy's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Murder, Eating disorder, Racism, Sexual harassment, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Mental illness, Cursing, Grief, and Sexual assault

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

christinereads1823's review

challenging dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.5

Fascinating read. Loved the way things played out, loved the flashbacks and the imaginings and getting sucked into the rabbit hole of Thalia's murder alongside Bodie. 
Makkai's unique writing style gives this book a rather poignant voice: the titular "you" that Bodie addresses throughout is both

her pedophilic ex-music teacher

and the reader, urging us to reconsider our positions, our privileges, our judgments, and our actions surrounding the normalization of abuse and violence suffered by female-presenting people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Classism, Grief, Blood, Infidelity, Alcohol, Eating disorder, and Death

Minor: Self harm, Drug use, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Cancer

emilybsullivan's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Racism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcohol and Drug use

torturedreadersdept's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Child death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Body horror, Physical abuse, Grief, Violence, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Stalking, Self harm, Transphobia, Rape, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Suicide, and War

ballousclues's review

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

2.5

I liked this book enough. It reminded me a ton of 13 Reasons Why, but surrounding homicide instead of suicide. This book was kind of hard for me to get through because of the pace. You are rehashing the murder of Thalia Keith from when Bodie Kane went to a private high school back in the 90s. Bodie works on a murder podcast and goes back to visit her old high school, The Granby School, to teach a class and help current high schoolers make their own podcast episodes.

Her whole time back at Grandby she is rehashing the murder of Thalia and trying to figure out who actually did it. One of Bodie's students decides she wants to do her podcast episode on the murder of Thalia and it reignites this fixation within Bodie. She can't just put the case down and clear it out of her head. It haunts her. As I mentioned above, it reads a lot like 13 Reasons Why. You have a list of names, why they did or potentially didn't do it, and then the book ends. To be honest, the story fell a bit flat for me. I liked it, but it was tough to get through and the ending didn't make it feel worth it to me.

I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend.

I kind of like books like this that don't give clear answers as to what happened and allow for us to create our own ideas. I can appreciate that most of this book centered around the fact that people don't always get justice and we may never know what truly happened. I think the book was more about "the friends we made along the way" than it was actually about a clear plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Grief, Violence, Eating disorder, Body shaming, and Alcohol

megreadsitall's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Grief, Sexual violence, Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual assault

gondorgirl's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Cancer, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Body shaming, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Eating disorder, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Terminal illness

rmataloni's review

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Grief, Cancer, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, and Infidelity