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reggiethebird's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug use, Medical trauma, and Alcohol
Moderate: Sexual content and Blood
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
ekg's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Drug use
savvylit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This wouldn't be a Mona Awad book, though, without a hypnotic descent into fever dream territory. After Miranda has a magical encounter at a pub, her narration becomes more and more unreliable. What's real in Miranda's life? She herself has no idea. This segment of the book was certainly an entertaining rollercoaster ride. However, it seemed to drag on and on only to maintain ambiguity. Perhaps my lack of familiarity with Shakespeare's less popular plays is what led to my feeling of disconnect from All's Well by its ending. I could tell that Awad was referencing Shakespearean tropes and characters but many of the references flew right over my head.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
readwithbells's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Drug use, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
cphunter's review against another edition
3.75
The alignment between the main character’s story and the play contained within is done with an interesting twist on the expected. The narrator is more than just unreliable - her whole reality is shaky and confusing to all the characters too - and therefore the plot becomes like jelly, wobbling unexpectedly and slipping through your fingers just when you think you’ve got a hold on it.
At time of writing this review I read this over a year ago and it has stuck with me really strongly, so I think my current rating is higher than it would have been at time, because creating such a stand-out concept and novel is certainly a feat.
Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use
Hallucinationsgenny's review against another edition
- 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
Apparently some people found Miranda's POV tiring, but I was engrossed. Awad does love her "can't tell if they're still experiencing reality" protagonists. I work in the medical field so the discussion about chronic pain was doubly haunting to me; I don't ever want my patients to feel unheard, to become this hopeless, although I understood the struggle of treating an "invisible" illness. Other than the Weird Brethren, there was probably a bunch of other parallels to Shakespeare's work that sadly went over my head. I already enjoyed this so much, I can only imagine how cool it must be to have that added perspective. Even the interview with the author at the end made for great reading, with the explanations about how theater/performance/pain can intertwine.
I'll leave a few of my favorite quotes here because I don't know what else to say other than I LOVED THIS, it was so freaking good.
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual content
decie's review against another edition
1.0
I am literally begging authors to stop using the magically disabled and tragically disabled tropes in their books. it really shouldn't be this hard.
I also felt like Awad was trying to have an unreliable narrator but made her so unreliable that half of the story was lost. we only needed one sentence from a onlooker's pov to make the entire book make sense, but we didn't get that. instead, we got a bizarre ableist fever dream without any clear messaging. wild.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, and Sexual content
Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, and Alcohol
kam_pearson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug use, Infertility, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
lisa00's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Drug use, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexual content
bi_n_large's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Chronic illness and Medical trauma
Moderate: Drug use, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Grief
Minor: Violence and Death of parent