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3.22 AVERAGE
3.22 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
This book is super weird.
Tom is insufficiently dead. He is returned to earth to complete the process of dying. There are a bunch of rules to follow including refrain from romantic entanglements and sex. So of course he engages in both.
This isn't a romance; this isn't even a love story. I actually couldn't begin to tell you what this story is about. All the relationships are unhealthy, toxic, abusive, manipulative. This book was not for me. I picked it up because I was intrigued by the premise, and I got drawn in by Tom's beautiful introduction. The end was confusing and anti-climatic. I finished the book but my interest couldn't be sustained throughout.
Thanks to Libro.FM and the publisher for the complimentary copy.
Tom is insufficiently dead. He is returned to earth to complete the process of dying. There are a bunch of rules to follow including refrain from romantic entanglements and sex. So of course he engages in both.
This isn't a romance; this isn't even a love story. I actually couldn't begin to tell you what this story is about. All the relationships are unhealthy, toxic, abusive, manipulative. This book was not for me. I picked it up because I was intrigued by the premise, and I got drawn in by Tom's beautiful introduction. The end was confusing and anti-climatic. I finished the book but my interest couldn't be sustained throughout.
Thanks to Libro.FM and the publisher for the complimentary copy.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
dark
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
A beautifully written odd little love story told from different perspectives. I enjoyed the metaphysical relationship between the living Rachel and deceased Thomas. A sweet tale of loss, love and learning to let go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Car accident
A love stove story threaded with melancholy. Two lost people find each other, connect, and then have to grapple with unsettling consequences due to the fact that one of them happens to be (mostly) dead.
when you end up not enjoying a book, who do you blame? the book? the writer? yourself? do you even seek blame at all, or just let go of the book altogether and move on? in this particular instance, it's sort of a culmination of everything.
the regrets, with its lovely cover (i love everything yellow themed, sue me! plus ghosts are cool), and it's strange synopsis, it had me enchanted right from the bat. i could already picture this intense, emotional story of a man after his death, pondering on what he might or might not regret alongside a woman, a lover, or friend or whatnot. i could taste the bitterness of it all and love each page, picture an entire film in my head.... what i got instead was terribly disappointing.
meet thomas: an asshole with golden looks and tacky, awful humor, and rachel, the quirky girl 505 with the sex drive that could spark up even the dead (get it?). it was a pity that so much of their chemistry was just fireworks - aka, physical. in other words, it was just sex. when it wasnt them having sex, it was so vain you wished it was sex again.
dont get me wrong, i don't have anything against the presence of sex in literature. however, i do have some against the lack of everything else.... if you were to ask thomas what he liked about rachel or vice-versa, what real, true, concrete things would they even say? what was the true point of their relationship? how did they link in an emotional way?
in fact, what was the point of this book? what's the lesson to take? what can thomas and rachel ever learn from each other when their relationship was so feeble? what is the point to create a genuinely interesting and creative system for post-death and then execute it in such a blurb of eggocentric characters and their quirky! lives? i know it's easier to critique, but i often wonder if writers, if i, ever do notice if what i write matter, if it make sense. amy gives me the sense that she lost her own way in her head when writing this novel.
you know what angered me the most though? is that the potential was there. it wasn't just my far too grand imagination. bonnaffons' mind came up with the strange yet captivating system of the regrets that made the first chapters, where thomas guides us through what we need to know, quite interesting, however odd they were. this book could've been something like... sunshine of the spotless mind, or if i stay (both emotional works about romance/life/regets). and amy's writing was quirky, charming, witty and actually very enjoyable! i would totally be down to read any other work of hers.
so yeah, basically: this book is the promise of something, while not living up to anything in particular. it's the "we have mcdonnalds at home" of what the synopsis promises.
----------------
first dnf of the year at the 54% marker.... what a let down
rtc when i gather my anger and disappointment
the regrets, with its lovely cover (i love everything yellow themed, sue me! plus ghosts are cool), and it's strange synopsis, it had me enchanted right from the bat. i could already picture this intense, emotional story of a man after his death, pondering on what he might or might not regret alongside a woman, a lover, or friend or whatnot. i could taste the bitterness of it all and love each page, picture an entire film in my head.... what i got instead was terribly disappointing.
meet thomas: an asshole with golden looks and tacky, awful humor, and rachel, the quirky girl 505 with the sex drive that could spark up even the dead (get it?). it was a pity that so much of their chemistry was just fireworks - aka, physical. in other words, it was just sex. when it wasnt them having sex, it was so vain you wished it was sex again.
dont get me wrong, i don't have anything against the presence of sex in literature. however, i do have some against the lack of everything else.... if you were to ask thomas what he liked about rachel or vice-versa, what real, true, concrete things would they even say? what was the true point of their relationship? how did they link in an emotional way?
Spoiler
was there any click between them besides the supernatual energy hoovering around?in fact, what was the point of this book? what's the lesson to take?
Spoiler
don't have sex with a ghost, kids! that means the guy's probably not alive!!!you know what angered me the most though? is that the potential was there. it wasn't just my far too grand imagination. bonnaffons' mind came up with the strange yet captivating system of the regrets that made the first chapters, where thomas guides us through what we need to know, quite interesting, however odd they were. this book could've been something like... sunshine of the spotless mind, or if i stay (both emotional works about romance/life/regets). and amy's writing was quirky, charming, witty and actually very enjoyable! i would totally be down to read any other work of hers.
so yeah, basically: this book is the promise of something, while not living up to anything in particular. it's the "we have mcdonnalds at home" of what the synopsis promises.
----------------
first dnf of the year at the 54% marker.... what a let down
rtc when i gather my anger and disappointment
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes