Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

163 reviews

megrob's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Medical trauma, Stalking, Confinement, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Rape, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Murder, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness

jlbailey831's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

In a lot of ways, this was a great book. I want to play the games. The writing is good. The emotions felt very real. Marx, Dong Hyun, and Bong Cha were perfect and I loved them. But, Sadie and Sam were kind of awful. Dov was actually awful. And I don’t think I’ve ever had to look up more words in a book than in this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Medical content, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexism, Death, Grief, Gun violence, and Hate crime

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Cancer, and Terminal illness

grace_b_3's review against another edition

reflective slow-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

2.0

If you like slow, meditative books where the characters just sort of exist and live their lives, you’ll like this book. There’s not much of a plot, despite so many out-of-left-field development, so tension isn’t what’s driving the story forward. 

This book is focused on a relationship, but

as the characters don’t really communicate, so any interpersonal conflicts never erupt and resolve so you never get those story beats. There never seem to be any stakes to their relationship. Pressure points are brought up only to go nowhere and fizzle out.

 

I also didn’t love the writing style, this book floundered a bit for me. The video game analogies got tedious after a while, and I prefer books that show more than tell, unlike this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

student/teacher relationship

jhsu's review

emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Gun violence

Minor: Abortion, Terminal illness, and Rape

amelia_d's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Vomit, and Death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

laughingrevolution's review

emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Gun violence, Terminal illness, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, and Medical trauma

labedzla's review

sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pregnancy, Mass/school shootings, Sexual violence, Grief, Mental illness, Abortion, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Death of parent

astridvb's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.75

I was sad when I finished this book, because I never wanted it to end. Eventhough the character’s choices could make me feel somewhat uncomfortable, this was such a comfort read. What an amazing book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

marippe's review against another edition

• 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

edit: read before i knew the author was a zionist but hey u cant win em all

og rating: 3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Chronic illness, Cancer, Medical trauma, Sexism, Vomit, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicide, Death, Racism, Abortion, Car accident, Infidelity, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Blood, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Classism, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Xenophobia

maziodynes's review

dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

I read this book fairly quickly, and except for some long tangents of telling rather than showing and some wild word choices, I enjoying the writing. But I found myself on a rollar coaster of "wow this is great, I like this!" to cringing at how badly these characters communicate and how off some of the gaming references are.

It's obvious the game development process stuff was well researched. I found myself really enjoying Marx's perspective as a games producer myself. however, the game dev "lingo" and the games they brought up in context were off or didn't make sense for the time (or even the character's personalities). The author researched game dev history, and design, but it seemed like she didnt actually talk to many developers, and it showed. 

The MMO segment at the end was particularly weird from a player perspective - nobody pretends like they arent playing a game unless theres some REALLY stringent RP going on, rare in a full online game unless you have friends you actively slchoose to do it with.

I found any and all mentions of sex in this book to feel far too clinical. It made sense sometimes for Sadie and Sam's over-intellectual povs, but even from Marx who is an emotionally intelligent and loving person, any POV of sex felt completely stripped down of emotion. The scenes felt so impersonal they may have well been omitted, esp when they were one-off sentences of "they had sex." But of course, we get the excruciating physical and emotional details when Sadie is sexually abused by Dov. Make it make sense

This is a personal hangup, but I couldn't get behind was the fact that Sadie kept Dov in her life the entire time. I understood needing to keep the professional relationship for Ichigo, at least at first. But how the is the game that your abuser made your COMFORT GAME? and you're still GETTING BRUNCH with him 10 years later?!? and he gives her that teaching position... it just makes me absolutely sick and soured my perception of Sadie. I wanted to root for her, but between some "not like other girls"-isms and her inability to work on her mental health in any capacity, I just couldn't after a while. And I liked Sam as a character alone, but his obsessive friendship /romantic tension with Sadie was too toxic for me to end up rooting for in the end. 

There were some beautiful lines in this book, some sentiments about life and friendship, and my chosen career that truly moved me. but the relationships between the characters ultimately left me wanting more resolution.

Marx was the emotional heart of this book for me in the end. His second-person chapter reduced me to tears. tbh, that chap alone is why I am giving this a 2.75 instead of 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Car accident, Suicide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, and Rape

Minor: Body horror, Cancer, and Terminal illness