Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Deportation'
All This Could Be Different: A Novel by Sarah Thankam Mathews
42 reviews
malayapapaya's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Deportation, Classism, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death
lindsayerin's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Transphobia, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Deportation, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
Minor: Fatphobia
dixiecarroll's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Gaslighting
Minor: Deportation and Police brutality
billyjepma's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Cursing, and Classism
Moderate: Racism, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Grief, Addiction, Deportation, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Drug abuse, Blood, and Vomit
danidamico's review against another edition
- 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
"I stared off into the low dark, thinking about how to shape a life's great turbulence into a story".
"How will we learn about the world if not from each other?".
"My family is a geode of silences. You would need a hammer to smash it open".
"Just as romantic love faded or fractured, so too could friendship end. But nobody consoles you after a rupture with a beloved friend. There are few movies ideal for watching while your tears salt pints of ice cream, no articles in women's magazines that you can skim at the hairdresser's. You have only the ache. No script to accompany it. No ritual to give it shape".
"How was anyone expected to dream loftily about the future when the present ground them down to powder and nothingness?".
Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Racism, Sexual assault, Deportation, and Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Police brutality, Transphobia, and Outing
cleo_reads's review against another edition
5.0
I found parts of it heavy, both because of all of the content warnings I put below and because it's such an emotionally accurate portrayal of being in your early 20s and wow, can that be hard to read about. But it's ultimately hopeful and uplifting.
Here's Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya's review, the review that convinced me to give it a try, even though I don't usually like lit fic - https://www.autostraddle.com/all-this-could-be-different-review/
A note for my fellow genre romance readers - this is absolutely not a genre romance - the MC does have a messy, on again, off again relationship but there's no hfn or hea and that felt like the absolutely right choice to me. This is a brilliantly written lit fic, coming of age story and that's what it should be read as.
Graphic: Deportation, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Racism
Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Classism
Minor: Chronic illness and Transphobia
dhritigupta's review against another edition
- 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
i really loved the prose in this, it was beautiful but also easy to read! i also felt like i haven’t seen many of these types of stories where the main character was brown and queer, so that representation was special.
that being said, i think there were a few things that detracted points for me, the main one being the way the two Black characters were handled in the book. i feel like tig and their sister were both used to explore issues that the author wasn't really in the place to explore?? like when coming from an author who isn’t black, it comes off more like perpetuating stereotypes than anything else. also feel a bit weird abt the author using aave and Black slang in those character’s dialogues for the same reasons.
i’m also kind of the in the camp that “imperfect” characters don’t have to say problematic shit for no reason… like there’s some weird stuff sneha says or thinks that i guess makes sense for the time the story is set in, but also doesn’t really add anything to the plot or her development. so why!
i feel like the romance with a white character started as a bit of commentary on how brown people are obsessed with whiteness but then evolved into a very real thing that i was supposed to ship… i cant! are u asking me to forget all those weird micro aggressions? i did not like the love interest and it made me sad to see sneha going through it for a white girl who really really wasn’t worth the trouble
last qualm: the book did suchhh a good job sometimes with describing cultural stuff/indian daughter stuff/immigrant stuff that it made me so confused when some low hanging metaphor or simile about mangos and saris was made. it was a mixed bag in that regard
i still enjoyed the book a lot though, especially with its emphasis on the power of platonic love, exploration of the feeling of safety, unique setting and descriptions of queer brown womanhood. a nice slice of life bildungsroman that was entertaining but reflective the whole way through
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Deportation, Incest, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Addiction and Racism
Minor: Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Vomit
bluedilly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Alcohol
Moderate: Transphobia, Addiction, Bullying, Deportation, Incest, Medical content, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Police brutality, and Sexual content
Minor: Death, Fatphobia, and Racism
agustinayloslibros's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness and Police brutality
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Racism, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Xenophobia, Addiction, Classism, and Alcoholism
Minor: Deportation, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
sjstringer's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Sexual assault, Deportation, and Addiction