Reviews tagging 'Grief'

We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride

50 reviews

readtomea97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-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

So good! So SO good! A great looks at adolescents and how they process grief and mental health. There’s so much I could say about this book, but I’ll just say it’s a short book that really packs a punch. So many lessons on grief, sorrow, learning to forgive yourself and how these feelings present themselves from different cultural aspects. Just great! 5 🌟

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Grief, and Child death

Moderate: Bullying

gellyreads's review

emotional reflective sad fast-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

Wow. I haven't read a novel that was written in verse in a while, and I found this one to be way easier to follow than others.

The fact that their siblings died via accident? That felt so real and powerful. *This is magical realism at its finest*

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Suicidal thoughts

purplepenning's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Oof. I'm going to need a beat to process this one. My initial response is: 👏👏👏 I'm so glad this book exists and I can see how it might work especially well for teenagers. But it's doing just a few too many things at once for my tastes. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Bullying, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Racial slurs

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

A magical realism adventure that's also an allegory for depression. A few notes don't resonate with me, but overall, what a symphony.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical content, Racial slurs, Racism, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Blood, Death, and Self harm

Minor: Bullying

Moderate: Mind control

valerira123's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Racism, Grief, Self harm, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

smcaput2's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Grief, Death, Bullying, and Self harm

jays_bookshelf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Self harm

joyreadsbuku's review

dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

4 stars - TLDR: A book written in verse about 2 teens dealing with mental health (clinical depression) and the layers it has. Characters were likeable, pace and plot were okay, but the ending was too fast. Make sure to be (emotionally) ready for this one. 

Long(er) review: I liked the main characters (Whimsy & Faerry) and that they start talking to each other again. They go through the same trauma and help each other through it. I did not like how one parent basically told the mc to forget what happened, making the parent no help at all. But this is a reality for a lot of people, so it's important to raise this issue. 

Speaking of, another character in the book said "Black boys don't get to feel things", which is also a crucial point to speak on. I liked the Fantasy and Magical Realism, but sometimes the magical aspect felt like a lot, which leads to feeling so out of touch with reality. As a result, it's actually well done because that is how depression can feel for some. 

The middle was a bit long because it kept hovering over what happened in the past without explicitly saying what happened (it dragged on a little bit). If it didn't, it would leave space for the ending to be more explained.

Overall a good book, but please be prepared before reading this book and pay attention to the trigger warnings (which are mentioned in the beginning of this book, and are in this case; depression, self-harm, trauma, death, panick attacks, grief).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm

njnic23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death

zeezelinski's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, Mental illness, and Self harm

Minor: Suicidal thoughts