Reviews with content warning for Child death - Great or Nothing

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Great or Nothing by Jessica Spotswood, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Joy McCullough

3 reviews

missreaderaddict's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

Content Warnings

ninascozydayreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing 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

4.5

What if Little Women was set in the 1940s and the sisters were all doing something for the war effort? A historical fiction retelling of a beloved classic. That sounds good right? Well, it is! And that is exactly what Great or Nothing is about. And I know I didn’t really make it sound exciting there but here me out!

The story starts sometime after the Big Fight (where Amy burns Jo’s manuscript) and after Beth has died (both events happen in the original as well, so these shouldn’t be spoilers). After this, the three remaining sisters have gone their separate ways. Jo has moved out, and is working in a factory on the assembly line making parts needed for planes. She has seemingly given up writing.

Amy, if you’d ask her sisters, is headed to art school in Canada. However, the art school was a ruse, and against her family’s wishes (and the law), she has boarded a boat to England to help out as a nurse with the Red Cross. In doing so, she has taken on a different name, as Amy herself was too young to go. Soon she finds herself in London, where she comes face to face with an old friend…

Meg has stayed home. Her fiancé is fighting in Europe, and Meg is working as a teacher at the local school. She misses her sisters. She misses her fiancé. She spends time with their mother, being the only sibling left at the nest.

And Beth? Beth watches all of their stories unfold, feeling sorrow that she’s no longer part of them but also happiness at seeing her sisters grow and move on.

The novel is written by four different authors, and each author takes on their own sister. Though this can sometimes cause a disruption in voices and writing style, where the different writing style can be off-putting or throwing you off, I didn’t notice any of that. The writings were at least similar enough for me to not notice, with of course the exception of Beth, whose chapters are written in verse. But that makes sense, since she’s no longer actually part of the unfolding story, but, just like the reader, a mere spectator.

Having multiple POVs can also be tricky. There always might be that one character that you are simply not interested in. I know I had that with A Song of Ice and Fire, for example. However, with this one, all three stories were so different and yet all so interesting. All three hooks of the story were compelling, yet it wasn’t overwhelming. I loved Amy’s adventures in London, I loved seeing her come to terms and make peace with the Big Fight. And at the same time I also loved Meg’s life, though that was objectively slightly less action-packed. But Meg was written to help out in her own way, by keeping morale up in the community. I loved how the book highlighted different ways of existing and living in the war, and that there was no bad way to go through it, whether you were out helping at the front or stayed home or worked on the assembly line, all was just as good and worthy of praise.

There weren’t many dynamics between the sister, mostly because they spent most of the book in completely different parts of the world. But you could still feel their love for one another, their regrets as well, and it was lovely seeing them each come into their own person and go from there, the message really being that sometimes space is necessary.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book. I am always a sucker for retellings and for historical fiction, so this hardly could have been a miss. The setting was vivid, the writing was really good and enchanting and really engaging; it swept me right along. It’s mostly character driven, because their bond as sisters as well as their own growth is at the front and center of it all, but there are some very interesting plot hooks. Especially Amy’s perspective had me on the edge of my seat sometimes (mostly with the romance) and Jo’s had me squealing throughout for that exact same reason.

Definitely give this a go if you:

- Like Little Women

- Love historical fictions

- Like Sapphic fiction (cause there’s a bit of that as well!! Not gonna say who but… I think you can guess who ;))

- Like a character driven story

Content Warnings

roefrancis_'s review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Oh my freaking god… that book was the best I have ever read.

I didn’t read the original little women book, my first experience was with the musical. I knew that it was about 4 girls and one of them died but that’s all I knew. That was until I was an ASM on the musical back in 2020 and I fell in love with the story immediately. With Jo’s drive to write, Megs motherly nature, Amy’s child like demeanour and Beth’s pureity and love for her sisters.

As soon as I found out that there was going to be a world war 2 reimagining with 4 different authors as the sisters I absolutely freaked. I knew I was going to love this book but not as much as I do. I love how they made subtle changes to the book that make it work and how we still get the same characters but somehow perfectly fit as if it was always meant for them to be like the way they are in this version.

Jo’s story with her being a factory worker living in a boarding house was so fitting and when we find out that was because Beth’s passing caused her to stop writing all made sense.

Then we meet Charlie… the love interest Jo was literally confirmed to be with. There is not a straight bone in her. And how they were both writers and Charlie is able to get Jo writing again is just so heartwarming

Then Amy with

stealing a girls papers to join the Red Cross, just changing the vision status was such a bold and Amy move. Wanting to make a fresh start in life after losing Beth and a difficult fight with her sisters left her feeling worthless. We meet all her friends who she works with and LAURIE! I was wondering how/if they were going to do the Amy and Laurie love story and I’m so glad they did because that was just pure wholesome and fluff. As soon as the letter Laurie wrote to Marmee about ratting her out came along I knew this was going to be the end of her journey and I’m so glad she came home to be with Meg. I love how sisterly that reaction was to her being on the front step.

Meg

as an English school teacher and John being a maths teacher…. THATS TOO FUCKING PERFECT! The whole love story and everyone that we get to know wow Meg works at the school it’s just so nice because we get to see characters like Doro who we get so many lovely moments with iand we get to see how much of a role model Meg is not just for her sisters. When you’re knocking door came I was getting scared because we have just had this moment with Laurie being wounded I didn’t wanna think about to die so when the door opened and John were standing outside of it I almost cried it was so beautiful and we feel so happy for her that she’s finally getting to see her partner and we are fine we get to see them kiss and Darrows Little Whistle as soon as I saw those two together just sent me but when the most heart felt moment was when she had that very vulnerable moment with Marmee And she’s reassured that she has a lot of emotions cause she’s human and doesn’t have to be the perfect old eldest child all the time

And finally with Beth’s parts written in prose, we get to know Beth’s voice and opinions reflecting on each chapter, proving that she is always watching her sisters and family especially when it mentions

that she “sits with Laurie every time he is in the plane so he is not on his own” especially after the moment when Amy and Laurie kiss is the reassurance we need that he is going to be ok

Overall this is now a huge comfort read for me and secured my love for little women more than ever

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