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Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

دوشیزگان by Alex Michaelides

3 reviews

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I've still got to make peace with the ending, and what I see as loose ends. But I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong about the ending. 

Oh--I wanted to note the author's idiosyncratic use of the m-dash. It was used many places I'd expect a comma, and really broke up the flow of the reading for me at first. It got easier with time. Maybe it's a UK thing? (I grew up in the US and moved to Mexico in my 40s--I know Mexico uses punctuation much differently, so perhaps that's the case with this unusual m-dash usage.) 

I'm working to re-establish a daily reading habit, and I was certainly invested in this story! I had a million theories I thought were sooo smart. Pleased to be incorrect about all of them. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

CW: murder, death of a parent, death of a sibling, cancer death, fatal car accident, fatal heart attack, death of a spouse, drowning death, death of a pet, domestic violence, mentions of self-harm, drug addiction, mentions of physical and sexual abuse, mentions of depression, mentions of suicide

THE GOOD: If you can suspend your disbelief I think this is a pretty good book, though I'll say I liked THE SILENT PATIENT more. I liked how it connected to THE SILENT PATIENT and would suggest reading this before that book because this takes place before it, although you can read that one first and it won't make too much of a difference. I liked the short chapters and that the story continued at the beginning of a new chapter rather than changing scenes. I put this off for quite a while after reading THE SILENT PATIENT because I was worried it would dive deeper into Greek mythology and I'm glad it didn't.

THE BAD: This was a slower burn. I also guessed the twist and wasn't thrilled with it.

Favourite quote: N/A

THE VERDICT: ★★★☆☆.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings