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lottie_xxx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Minor: Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts
tiriol's review
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Violence, Death, Torture, and War
Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness
thequeenofsheba3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Torture and War
Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Self harm
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Murder
czidya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Arudpragasam's writing is wordy, but never unnecessarily so, such that it allows him to communicate complex, often difficult to express ideas with stunning beauty.
"What for lack of a better word was sometimes called love, he had realized that night, was not so much a relation between to people in and of themselves as a relation between two people and the world they were witness to, a world whose surfaces and exteriors gradually began to dissipate as the two individuals sank deeper and deeper into what was called their love."
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Mental illness, War, and Torture
Moderate: Suicide, Gore, Racism, Hate crime, and Drug use
Minor: Self harm, Homophobia, and Alcohol
elizabethgreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
What I enjoyed. Learning about some historical moments of the Sri Lankan Civil war which is now something I want to learn more about. The look into how war affects people and future generations and the hard journey of healing after a war. The look on aging love ones affects familial relationships and the mental health of the elderly. The relationship and unlikely friendship between the grandmother and her care taker. That being said there wasn't enough of this through out the novel.
What I didn't like was the stream of consciousness writing with run on sentences and long paragraphs. As a reader with learning disabilities this made reading the novel extremely frustrating as I was continually getting lost and having to go back and read sections multiple times. I also think this novel would have been better if told from a different pov. Say maybe dual pov of the grandmother and her care taker. The author also would take pages to summarize movies, epic poems, and other events to the reader which really took me out of the story. It was also very introspective and too much which lead to me being bored. The entire book takes place over about a period of 3 - 4 days with lots of flash backs and this didn't work for me in this story.
Moderate: Child death, War, Self harm, and Death
yatinarora's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: War
narpetcards's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, War, Death, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, and Self harm