Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun

29 reviews

bookcasey's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is simply the sweetest, most beautiful, rip your heart to shreds and stitch it back up three sizes bigger book that I’ve ever read. I laughed constantly. I held back tears a few times and then cried so hard I couldn’t see the words anymore. The way this book approaches and opens up grief, death, mental health, love, joy, life, and so much more spoke to me in such a special way. I wanted to wrap every character in the biggest hug and never let go. I don’t even know how best to say how perfect it was, but I can tell you already this is a top book of 2024. And probably of ever. 

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kleinekita's review against another edition

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2.0


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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Thanks to Atria Books for the free copy of this book.

 - OMG, this book 😭😭❤️ I very NEARLY cried reading this book, which is high praise because books never make me cry.
- You wouldn’t think this book, which you know is going to end in a death, would be so hilarious, but it is. I loved the road trip shenanigans and the bickering and the joy and beauty found in the bleakest of times.
- Then, of course, this book is also filled with thorny questions of how to live your life and what are the most important things in that life. Just a treat, all around.
- I also loved how Logan’s ADHD and Rosemary’s anxiety are not problems to be fixed, but integral parts of who they are. (Not that I expected anything less from Cochrun!) 

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ali1311's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This was gut wrenching and lovely all at once. A very atypical romance novel, but I think that's what made it extra impactful. The combination of love and death feels like an odd one, but Cochrun pulls it off expertly. Some parts of the dialogue were a bit cringey (using queer icons' names in place of 'oh my god' or some cheesy/cliched lines), but the rest of the story made that easy to move past. It's so many different things and stories rolled into one, and I think it's a really special book that I won't soon forget. Thanks to goodreads for the arc <3

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sebrittainclark's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

Long time rivals Logan and Rosemary are forced to spend a summer together when their dying mentor ask them both to take him on a final road trip across the country. Along the way they find out that maybe they've misunderstood each other and themselves for too long.

This book was wonderful and heartbreaking. I absolutely loved Joe, Rosemary, and Logan and their trip across the country.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-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

5.0

This is my favourite book I’ve read so far this year. 

I loved Alison Cochrun’s debut The Charm Offensive, and I read it all pretty much in one sitting, but this book…. This book was different. It was special. I think it had so many more elements of things that I love in a way that it was written more for me than TCO could ever be: cross country road trips, sapphic love, friends to enemies to tentative allies to lovers, English teachers, girls with ADHD, a big dog, and of course, ABBA. An ode to grief and a treatise on love. 

Sure, it’s “a romcom about death” as Alison pitched it, but it’s hard to capture how much it is both a) a romcom, that has swoony romantic moments and laugh-out-loud funny jokes, and b) still very much entirely centred around death and loss. 

I cried, I laughed, and I laugh-cried. This book was so beautiful and real and heartbreaking and joyous. A eulogy that truly was a celebration of life and all of the beauty and the pain that comes with it. Delightfully and fully queer through generations. 

Although you always know what’s coming at the end, that’s not the point of the story— it’s the way that you get there that’s really important, with all the detours and roadblocks that come with. It’s about the ways in which we crack ourselves open and who we allow to see our brokenness on the way. 

I can’t wait for this book to come out so that the rest of the world can read it. 🩷💜🧡

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tylerlee_readsnow's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t quite have words for how much I love this book.

Logan and Rosemary were best friends in middle school. An incident the summer before high school turned them into rivals. For ten years after high school, they didn’t speak. Now, in their 30s, they agree to go on a death trip with their mentor as his dying wish. They are forced together for what is supposed to be a simple 5-day trip, and they soon realize maybe they have more to work through than the grief of losing their lifelong mentor.

This book was, in a word, incredible. I very much enjoyed ‘The Charm Offensive’ so when this book came up I knew I wanted to read it. I was absolutely blown away by the weaving of this story. I laughed and cried the whole way through. Cochrun made me feel so connected to these characters so that every part of them felt embedded in my heart.

The mental health and grief representation in this book was done so well. The way it was weaved together was perfect. How different people process their grief and how their mental illness can affect that process is something that is so important to talk about and Cochrun did a phenomenal job. 

Tropes:
Childhood friends to lovers
Second chance
Opposites attract
Found family
Forced proximity 

Content/Trigger warnings:
Death of a parent (off-page)
Death of an important figure
Cancer
Addiction
Abandonment.

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carolinerosereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 I’ve never been in love before, but I’m pretty sure it feels like this.

I absolutely adored Here We Go Again, a sapphic rom-com that explores grief, reconciliation, and redemption. I have read another one of Cochrun's books, and liked but didn't necessarily love it, so I went into this book with an open mind, and I'm certainly glad that I did!

Here We Go Again follows Logan and Rosemary, childhood best friends turned enemies turned coworkers, who reunite when their beloved high school teacher is diagnosed with a terminal illness. When Joe - their former teacher - asks them to take him on a cross-country road trip to Maine (from Portland), the women have no choice but to grant his dying wish.

I absolutely loved this story, for so many reasons. Logan and Rosemary were complex and believable characters who drew me in, and I was rooting for each of them, both separately and to get together, already! Joe's journey is an incredibly touching one as well, which really ties the entire story together. I loved that Cochrun not only dives deep into the relationship of the characters, but also explores queer history and different meaningful aspects of the LGBTQ experience. Cochrun perfectly balances humor and heart, and this story is as sweet and funny as it is meaningful.

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Alison Cochrun for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

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