Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

2 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This series was gifted to me for my birthday. I loved the film and loved the last book; however, I think it should have had a tragedy ending and that this book wasn’t really needed. 

This book has two points of view. The first is Ethan Wate, he has always dreamed of leaving the Southern town of Gatlin. But he never dreamt that finding love with Lena Duchannes would drive him away. Lena is a Caster girl whose supernatural powers unveiled a secretive and cursed side of Gatlin, so powerful it forced him to make a terrible sacrifice. Ethan is dead and stuck in the other universe and now he must find a way to return to Lena and to Gatlin. The second point of view is Lena Duchannes, she is refusing to move on with her life after Ethan’s death. She believes he is sending her messages from the other side and the only person that believes her is Ethans’s guardian Amma. Together they vow to do whatever it takes to get him back. Even if it means trusting old enemies or risking their loved one’s lives. Can Ethan and Lena rewrite their fate and will their love prevail. 

This book was not needed at all. Amma should be alive. Ethan should be dead. Lena should be moving on and being a badass instead of moping over Ethan. There was no need for Amma to die, she was literally the godsend of the series and yet they killed her off with three chapters, it was pathetic and ruined the whole series. I ended up skimming through most of this book especially with most of the villains from the previous series coming back and trying to have a different arc. I couldn’t tell if this book was a money grabbing scheme or if the fans from when it first came out begged for it, but I would have loved for this book to be Lena older with children and talking about the old times with Ethan as a memory. He had such a good storyline of sacrificing himself to save his town and the people he loved, and this book has just ruined the whole arc of the series 

The thing that stopped this book being 2 stars was Link and the additional POV from Lena, but the rest was just not needed. 
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simplythegirl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

So I'm  not the intended audience for this book and usually I  give an extra star for that but I  think this series has some major problems. I'll  start with this book specifically

The plot revolves around getting Ethan back. There's  no real stakes it's  pretty predictable. There are  a few interesting new characters which I'd  love to have seen more of. The pacing is also pretty slow. I love Link, Macon, and I love Liv and John so I got through the books because  I wanted to see them and know what happened to them. Ethan and Lena are okay in comparison. I think Ethan is the most underdeveloped and bland character and the book focus on him a lot.

This book series has not aged well and I would not let my kids read it unless they're  concious on why its problematic

Amma sacrifices herself for Ethan. The only African American woman gives up her life for this white boy. This screams "white savior." The systematic and societal  statement on that is tragic.
She's an underdeveloped character compared to all the white characters too. Poc get shafted in books like this and this is a clear book that did not do poc justice. Also the civil war is referred  to multiple times as "the war on cotton" and never mentions racism in the south. I guess because  this book is majority white people the author thought it was fine. She tries to make it seem like everyone in the town holds onto old ways(implied racist ways too)  but will seriously and casually skim the topic of racism thr only violenc   in flashbacks are eone by union soldiers again over cotton. That should tell you something about the author. Amma also does voodoo which is a stereotype. She's  always been under Ethan's family in the hierarchy and no amount of good Ethan's family did for slaves  in the past can justify her place, sacrifice, and underdevelopment.  I really would have preferred Ethan stay in the afterlife. 


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