Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

11 reviews

the_kristin_amber's review

Go to review page

emotional sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Beautifully written
Tragic the whole way through
Kept me up late -- a page turner

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sophiemcauley's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jodar's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.5

The novel explores themes of family love and of heart-breaking loss that tears families apart. The MCs face terrible moral dilemmas upon which they stumble because of their almost tragedy-like virtues. The characters and dialogue are well-crafted and believable, notable given this is the author’s first novel. There are some genuinely moving, emotionally charged passages throughout the story.

And yet… I found some of the plot a little too tidy in places, a bit too melodramatic. And at times the characters felt almost stereotypical and uncomplicated; the feeling that “this is exactly how this dramatis persona would think, speak and act ”.

Further, the male MC holds some grim, cynical philosophical attitudes to life:
A life had come and gone and nature had not paused a second for it. The machine of time and space grinds on, and people are fed through it like grist through the mill. (Chapter 10)
and:
Years bleach away the sense of things until all that’s left is a bone-white past, stripped of feeling and significance. (Chapter 37)
and:
Soon enough the days will close over their lives, the grass will grow over their graves, until their story is just an unvisited headstone. (Chapter 37)
These thoughts are, I suppose, understandable in light of his experience, though it is difficult to see how such a view didn’t darken his interactions with other people more significantly.
And the authorial voice, too, comments of the society:
History is that which is agreed upon by mutual consent.
  That is how life goes on – protected by the silence that anaesthetises shame. (Chapter 17)

So yes, it is a story of love and grief and of love reclaimed despite the loss and tragedy, but in the end it feels to me to be a story of ultimate despair.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hanngigi's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jg34's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I listened to this on audiobook but I did try to start reading this years again and never got into it before it was due to the library. It was still challenging to get into, maybe because the beginning is pretty dry  and it takes a long time to start getting into actual dialogue and the real story. However it was such a unique subject and I really did enjoy the story once it got started and definitely shed some tears for this unconventional family.
I can’t decide if I like how it ended because obviously returning Lucy to her actual mother was the right thing to do but that poor little girl!! I sorta wish some sort of compromise could have been made but I suppose that’s not realistic. Damn them for even keeping her in the first place and putting me through this ugh

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

honeyenbee's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

pollyhall's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

stupidgoldfish's review

Go to review page

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

4.0

Enjoyed it as a nice escape 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

silverrose187's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

maya_books's review

Go to review page

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

1.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings