Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

6 reviews

jo_d's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The characters are so real, so human. A young teenage girl acts like a young teenage girl and it is heartbreaking and beautiful. 
I liked it. It's not a story on morality, or how to act properly, it's a story of three interesting people tied into a dysfunctional family. They're all liars and hurting and imperfect and don't often say the right thing and it's honest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, War, Suicide, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Grief, and Death

Minor: Abortion

books_baking_brews's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

 Lescure really pulled something off here. I mean I just didn't like a single character. They were terrible to each other and the people they were supposed to be there for. They used each other and people in their paths so thoughtlessly. The worst by far was Sloan. They are all thwarted by missed opportunities and longing to feel special and to distinguish themselves as such; I don't think they ever knew contentment, and that sort of conniving, grasping nature is hard to read. But despite your dislike you keep reading because it's sorta like watching a train wreck and the backdrop is so interesting and by the end you think what just happened here. This book covers a lot: the undercurrents, or in some cases "over" currents, of how expats move to a country and use it and lay claim to it without ever really having to suffer for it, without ever truly loving it outside of what it can get for them; the impact of China's one-child policy and the "re-education" of urban youth policy--the so-called lost generation; the fetishizing of Asian women; and the idolization of Americanness. It's all in there plus more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcoholism

plasticpansy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Racism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcoholism

absolutive's review against another edition

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Suicide attempt

_inge's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This book gripped me from the second I started it. I really enjoyed the first half; Alva’s story was a great coming of age story, Lu Fang’s story felt less captivating to me, as it didn’t really tell me anything new and was too focused on whether he’d get into a relationship or not. Gradually Lu Fang’s character changed and his story therefore did get more interesting for a while. The writing is quite good too, though sometimes a bit too descriptive for me. Some words got repeated quite a lot too, like ‘squirt of sperm’ or ‘partner’, meaning those words lost their emotional meaning quickly. But still, I initially found this a captivating read. 

Unfortunately, about midway through both Alva and Lu Fang’s storylines got too bleak for me. In the first half there’d be hope for better times, but as both Lu Fang and Alva face traumatic experiences that hope got lost. At certain points it felt like the author was piling on misery to get the story to continue, even though what I’d enjoyed in the first half was the subtle frictions or discussions on identity. How Alva is perceived in her school environment was really interesting to read about, as was seeing how she perceived herself. This got lost in the traumatic events that unfolded in the second half.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Rape, Child death, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Car accident, and Physical abuse

veeteegee's review

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This was a book that took a little while to fully grasp my attention, but I found one it did, it wasn’t released until its conclusion. The dual perspectives of Alva and Lu Fang offered a gift in providing two very different tales of longing, disappointments, triumphs, and everything in between set in two very different Chinas with a shared goal of escaping the  norm or the standard route in their own ways. I find myself curious about where their respective stories would continue to converge and divert from one another, especially in relation to their shared link to Sloan. It was definitely not a happy story, but in the sadness Aube Rey Lescure created a tale that was beautiful in its heartbreaks too.  

I am immensely grateful to the publisher for the receipt of this advanced reader’s copy of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Xenophobia, Violence, and War