Reviews

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

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flotg's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

lieselandmax53's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective 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

4.25

kristinalh's review against another edition

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3.0

" 'She isn't as I remember. This isn't the Janet we knew.' And I nod. Her power has gone."

"A smile splits her face, and her laughter rises, fat and iridescent as soap bubbles. It's contagious, and soon we are all laughing for no real reason at all. Or maybe there is...This is it, I realize. This. Is. It. And then I see my mother, alone with a screaming baby, and I wish she had had someone to connect with; someone to confide in about the lows of motherhood that weighed her down so that she never felt this lighthearted, this joyful..."

"And I want to remind us all to cherish this. These highs of motherhood that sustain us; that buoy us up when we're exhausted, or anxious, or it all feels like a bit of a struggle: these perfect, necessary moments."

This book follows the story of a woman who's daughter (10 months old) is brought to the ER, only to discover that she has a skull fracture. Between getting investigated for child endangerment, other family drama and twists involving friends, this book had a lot going on. It was worth reading, though I was not satisfied by the ending.

bookph1le's review against another edition

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2.0

While I thought a big part of this book's problem was that the writing was pretty weak, especially in the latter half, I also think this book just didn't know what it wanted to be. The premise of a mother who may be suffering from postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis possibly harming her child could make for a compelling and thought-provoking book. This one didn't, mainly because it has to throw in the obligatory twist and because Liz's story was, to me, nowhere near as interesting as what was going on with Jess and her family.

This is disappointing. For a while the novel does a good job of making the reader think hard about what women go through after they have a child, which is an important topic that is only now starting to get the attention it has long deserved. I don't think it's any coincidence that the growing understanding of and attempts to raise awareness of mental illness in general are happening at the same time more women are speaking out about miscarriage and postpartum issues. For far too long women have suffered in silence, afraid of the opprobrium of friends, family members, and society at large if they expose how they are struggling, and particularly if they admit to the kinds of feelings Jess is having during the course of this book. I really would have liked to see the novel lean into that. Having Liz as a narrator could still have worked had the book not thrown in her family drama, which drained the novel of its propulsive quality, and had the book relied on the strength of Jess's narrative rather than employing bog-standard thriller genre twists.

Which begs the question of why this book is a thriller in the first place. It could easily have instead been written as a work of contemporary fiction without the need for the tricks the thriller genre tends to demand, which I suspect would have been a better approach for this particular author.

elliecleland5's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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

3.75

steph1101's review against another edition

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3.0

I enjoyed this book, it had an interesting plot and a good premise. I definitely found that pieces of it seemed to be over explained and drawn out. I did feel like i was skipping pages here and there just to get through. I was overall invested in the characters though and what happened to them which kept me reading. I enjoy books where each chapter is a different characters perspective so i enjoyed that aspect of it.