Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Una suerte pequeña by Claudia Piñeiro

9 reviews

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I found this book extremely slow to get started, but once it did I was gripped even though little happens - a good two-thirds of the book is the protagonist, Marile, reflecting. Throughout the slow first section, I couldn't foresee what it was building up to, and found that I was getting bored as the prose was quite dense. However this did mean that I was genuinely shocked by the main event of the novel when it eventually arrived. From that point on, I flew through the rest of the story. I was pleasantly reminded of Ian McEwan by the focus on a single traumatic event and its impact on the rest of Marile's life, and thought the writing style was also similar to McEwan. 

I picked this up because I'd previously read Elena Knows and wanted to try something else by this author, so it was only when I'd finished and returned it to the library that I realised it was in the crime and mystery section. I would have been disappointed if I'd been expecting crime fiction, as no crime takes place in this book and any mystery is much more about the characters' feelings and motivations than solving puzzles or looking for clues - I'm not sure where that categorisation came from. I really enjoyed this book, though, as the thought-provoking literary fic it was!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Abandonment, and Child death

Moderate: Death

Minor: Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness

biobeetle's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Child death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content

xbarr2's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Car accident, and Child death

Minor: Miscarriage and Gaslighting

molly_readss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abortion, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Chronic illness, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, and Toxic relationship

busra425's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Made me cry, multiple times, but in a good way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Grief, and Abandonment

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

 A Little Luck opens with Mary Lohan preparing to travel from Boston to Buenos Aires for work. It soon becomes clear that Mary has some history in Buenos Aires, history she’s not keen to revisit.

This book explores what happens when you make a decision, a slight error of judgement, one that you and plenty of others have made previously to no ill effect, except this time it has tragic consequences. Would you, could you carry on after the worst day of your life? And what might you have to sacrifice along the way? Could you forgive yourself for your choices and could others forgive you?

I love the issues this book explores and I really love the suspenseful way the first half unfolds. Interspersed with Mary’s present timeline are small snippets that hint at her past. At first this is just a short basic paragraph, but each time a few sentences are added to the previous version, slowly revealing more and more details as to exactly what happened that terrible day. This really builds a suspense and made for a propulsive reading experience as I frantically turned the pages in search of further details.

This is in many ways a book of two parts. Although each has a different feel I enjoyed them both equally and was never less than 100 % engaged. The storytelling was simply fabulous. And the ending was perfection - hopeful but restrained, just what I needed.

This is a book that had me asking all the “what ifs” and “what would I dos”. It left me thankful for the kindness of strangers and much more aware of all the small moments and small decisions that have the potential to alter the trajectory of our lives. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, and Car accident

nataliamb's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer and Suicidal thoughts

linguaphile412's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Child death, Abandonment, and Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Mental illness

Minor: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

bookishcori's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Abandonment, and Grief

Minor: Child death and Mental illness