Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

401 reviews

cghegan's review

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-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: Car accident, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Classism, Chronic illness, Blood, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Death, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide and Cancer

kyriannaj's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Classism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Sexual violence

sbnptwrn's review

emotional hopeful sad medium-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

3.0

The concept/premise was great but I feel that Zevin didn’t pull through with the execution. Felt like it was trying to juggle so many parts or elements that it resulted in way less ‘signal’ than there is ‘noise.’ I think it would’ve benefitted with some more structural edits/different editorial decisions. Often there were parts where the prose felt quite flat or bloated, and while I appreciate the attempts at social commentary it often felt shoehorned and could’ve been integrated into the narrative better. (Same with the homages and descriptions of video games). Second half felt weaker,  and while I did find Sam to be interesting I generally find that the characters were not very compelling. I think that this story may have worked better as a TV series/film

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Grief, Gun violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Homophobia, Medical content, Racism, Sexism, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Antisemitism, Cancer, Abortion, and Pregnancy

blairsatellite's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Abortion, Medical trauma, Vomit, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Cursing, Ableism, Mass/school shootings, Cancer, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Hate crime, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Chronic illness, Car accident, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Misogyny, Gore, Cultural appropriation, Classism, and Terminal illness

sophiabenton's review

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? Yes

3.0

Real mixed opinions on this book as a whole. Was really confused about a third in as I had put the book down for a while and then was suddenly a good 20 years ahead in the next chapter which was really confusing. I feel if it read chronologically I’d have enjoyed a lot more and would’ve built a better relationship with the characters and seeing their growth. Some sections I absolutely loved but through the second half of the book I just found myself skimming sentences and wanting to skip pages because it felt so boring. I also got really confused when it entered the scene in the game near the end, I didn’t get a sense of who was who or what the purpose of that section was. Personally didn’t get the hype 🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Gun violence, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness

purplatypus's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Death, Mental illness, Medical content, Car accident, Grief, Gun violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder, Pregnancy, Blood, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Cancer, Vomit, Hate crime, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion and Cultural appropriation

katiehalford's review

emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.75

I LOVED this book!! It was not really on my tbr radar but it was the chosen book for my book club and I am so glad I was introduced to it!!

I love books that span several years as I feel it gives you chance to really get to know and love the characters and this book is no exception!! I absolutely adored Sadie, Sam and Marx and loved the exploration of the individual relationship dynamics between each of them and how these shifted as the story went along. Even the ‘side’ characters such as Dov, Dong and Bong, Ant etc felt so rich and real (which is often my biggest critique of other books). 

I found the exploration of platonic love so perfect and moving. And although I feel the book had a lot of clear ‘teaching moments’, at no point did these feel unnatural or forced which is a true skill from the author. 

The only critique I would have was that the last third of the book was a little slow. I still found it incredibly emotional due to how connected I felt to the characters but did feel that the plot dragged slightly compared to the first two thirds of the book which I couldn’t get enough of. 

Overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to really immerse themselves in the world of the characters and who will enjoy a story that is simultaneously fantastic yet relatable (and no you do not have to care about gaming one bit to enjoy this book!!)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion

julianaparra's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Vomit, Drug use, Excrement, Physical abuse, and Cultural appropriation

anouks_books's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Vomit, Car accident, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Suicide, Sexual content, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol, Abortion, and Drug use

amgarrido's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

An extremely evocative and gripping depiction of friendship through the ages, tackling miscommunication and dealing with grief, chronic illness and a number of other difficult themes. I particularly liked the fact that the book didn’t end after Marx died, as I felt it really encapsulated the feeling you have after someone passes away; how the world continues to move forwards relentlessly, whilst for you it has completely stopped. In this case, Sadie retreated back into herself but was forced to continue by her quickly advancing pregnancy, while Sam was pushed to move forward by their business, learning how to make critical decisions alone.

Sam and Sadie both had very strong character development, although it almost seemed as if the roles were reversed at the end of the book and Sadie’s insistence to cut Sam off throughout for no good reason became slightly irritating. However, I believe Zevin may have done this on purpose, to depict that people’s actions whilst grieving or depressed can be difficult to understand even to those closest to them, and their thoughts and feelings contradictory even to themselves. I will say that I didn’t like Dov’s continued presence in the book.

I never would have picked up a book about gaming if it had not been so vigorously recommended by people around me and online and I’m very glad I did. Zevin’s writing is lyrical and enrapturing in a way I have not experienced in a long time - I look forward to reading ‘The Storied Life of AJ Fikry’ which is also on my shelf.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Gun violence, Medical content, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Blood, Cancer, and Mental illness