Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - The Great Believers

Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

28 reviews

scarlett4's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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burnyayhayley's review

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emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I was very prepared to give this 4 stars, even 3 stars. The build is very slow, slower than I usually like. There are a lot of secondary characters, which at times became confusing. Some little things that would have been simple to explain were left untied (but this is actually not a big issue for me, just a frustration).
Maybe this story hits too close to home, having lost someone myself who lived through this era and watched many friends die from AIDS. Perhaps I am also just a sap. But this book made me SOB.
I was WEEPING. There are not many surprises in this book, just by the nature of the story, but there was a true and tangible depth of pain and power in the way these men are represented, and how they in turn represent an entire generation of lost queer people. It is clear that there was a wealth of respect held for this cast of characters and who they represented.
Also, sometimes it takes a really beautiful, terribly sad and horribly accurate book to remind you how very important the little things in our lives are. How much we should be trying our hardest to hold onto each other and experiences of joy and all the weird fleeting magic of life. Because even when things are so shitty and we are sad and it feels like as soon as you get up there is something else beating you back down, there will still be something handing you a sliver of hope. And that will lend it all some beauty.

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howwoolatthemoon's review against another edition

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5.0

Ooooooof this book is so compelling and absolutely heartbreaking all at the same time. It's two timelines, popping back and forth, intertwined - the present, and Chicago in the 80s. Makkai figures out how to reveal things in the right order, despite the timeline changes, and make it all feel so natural. I would recommend this book to anybody and everybody - except those who had to live through this particular time in history - it's about a friend group made up of mostly gay men living through the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. And by "had to live through this time," I don't mean those who were merely alive at the time it happened. I mean those who were IN it, and anyone who has lived as gay man in the years since. It's beyond tragic how many lives were lost, and how many ways these men were made to feel like garbage. I lived in this time, as a child, in the 80s. I vaguely knew some about AIDS at the time. This book hooked me from the start with great storytelling, and really opened my eyes to the details of day to day life and death (although that's not the only topic it covers).

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