Reviews - Dava Shastri's Last Day

784 reviews for:

Dava Shastri's Last Day

Kirthana Ramisetti

3.53 AVERAGE

shalaka_'s review against another edition

2.25

emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

i wanted to like this more, especially since the description and premise interested me. but instead i found myself not being able to sympathize with the characters and their problems and wanted to get the book over with.

naiadtales's review against another edition

3.75

emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

emahoney's review against another edition

3.5

emotional funny sad medium-paced

megancagg23's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rachelhuns's review against another edition

2.75

emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

crafalsk264's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional informative reflective 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: Yes

Dava Shastri is one of the wealthiest people in the world. And she is one of the most generous philanthropists as well. Dava made her money in the support of artists and the music industry but she also had a deep seated need to help others and live a life of substance. She is committed to doing this in her own name—not her husband’s. This is one of the most interesting plot elements—that there have been extremely few female philanthropists who acted in their own name instead of a husband’s. Dava believes it should be a family venture, like the Rockefellers or the Carnegies.

Dava has been diagnosed with brain cancer and has only a few months to live. Rather than spend her final weeks in pain and misery, she decides to forego any treatments, except to manage pain, and to take her own life instead. She finds a doctor specializing in assisted suicide and invites her four adult children to join her at the family’s chalet on a private island the week after Christmas. However, the announcement of her death hits the news the day before the family is scheduled to arrive. Dava had planned the early announcement so that she could see her obituaries and memorials. But she first has to deal with the anger of her children and, instead of the praise she expected, all the news is about two supposed “secrets”. One is a decades old rumor of an affair with a singer/songwriter marked by a famous song bearing her name and the other is of an unwed, teenaged pregnancy resulting in a child given up for adoption. Within this setting, Dava needs to work out issues with each of her children and grandchildren before the appointment with her doctor.

This is an interesting premise but there were too many subplots. The flashbacks to Dava’s younger self highlighting her career, marriage and her relationships with those in her life were well developed. The ending was better than I expected and I was satisfied with how the author worked the various storylines out. Most of the characters were not likable and were not well developed. I did come to like Dava as I learned more about her story. But there were too many siblings with story lines. The writing was fluent and I did enjoy the book, but it was only a good not great read.