Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Mad Honey by Jennifer Finney Boylan, Jodi Picoult

109 reviews

shelovedtoread's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Hate crime, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Outing, Emotional abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Child death, Murder, Self harm, and Suicide

bookwormcat's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, Outing, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Violence

lvosler21's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Gaslighting, Self harm, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Grief, Mental illness, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Death, Deadnaming, Child death, Bullying, Body shaming, Blood, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

roveronez's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

A poignant novel written in duo with seamless perfection! So many delicate subjects treated with a lot of kindness and respect. There is a lot of emotion, a lot of second guessing, oh so many triggers... and a mistery to be solved. The story is written in 2 voices, one moving forward as the story evolves, the other backwards - which was a bit disconcerting at times - to slowly reveal the background and shatter our hearts. Beautifully written!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Grief, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion

jrow's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

Found the book boring until the trial revealed Lily was AMAB. I thought it was a clever way to surprise the reader with the knowledge, just like the court was discovering it. However, before that point reading the beginning was as easy as a walk through knee-deep mud.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Homophobia, Outing, Suicide attempt, Violence, Transphobia, Bullying, Deadnaming, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood

feralpoodles's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

4.5

Very good, very emotional and heavy, but also gripping mystery. Definitely very dark, basically any dark/heavy emotional theme you can think of is at least mentioned in this book, but I don’t think it’s too heavy handed most of the time. I liked the back and forth perspectives between Olivia and Lily, but (mostly stylistically) I liked Olivia’s chapters better. Sometimes Lily’s chapters made the pacing feel a little stilted, and the timeline wasn’t quite clear for me. I actually didn’t realize that Lily’s perspective was in reverse chronological until the very end (though that could just me my problem because I tend not to register time spans/dates when they’re written out at the start of chapters). Thought it was a very well done exploration of abusive relationships and the cycle of abuse. Great plot twist in the middle, I audibly went “Whaaat” when it was revealed, and I flipped back through what I just read and stuff made a lot more sense, which is my favorite kind of twist. A bit preachy sometimes, there’s a few bits after the plot twist that feel like a tumblr psa post that break the immersion a bit, but there weren’t too many instances so I can forgive them, especially since the topic is so misunderstood and polarized right now. Dragged on a few times, but overall kept me very engaged and emotionally invested, definitely heartbreaking, lots of complex emotions. Loved all the bee stuff too, was very interesting to learn about and thematically was very satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abortion, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt

rsilverst's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

This was such a fantastic book from start to finish. The closer I got to the end, the more I worried that I would be disappointed, but this book was really well architected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Death, Dysphoria, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Sexual content, Eating disorder, Grief, Medical content, Transphobia, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Sexual assault

christinesreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Grief, Bullying, Deadnaming, Child death, Death, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Abortion

silverhill's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Death, Dysphoria, Transphobia, and Grief

Moderate: Gaslighting, Blood, Outing, Deadnaming, Medical content, and Bullying

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Death of parent

mollz12's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was actually surprised to love this book. I decided to listen to it for some of my road trips and it was worth it. I could hear the parts I would have put it down and had a hard time coming back. 
I was confused a lot why they would back track with Lily’s memories. I kept thinking I went backwards but I think they did it on purpose. 
It was very intense and very sad. The hopeful parts were of the mothers saving their children. 

The parts of Lily recounting Ash being mean; yelling , grabbing her, speeding, etc. were interesting to add especially because Lily never shared them out loud, and the court scenes were of him being nice and calm. 
I thought that these pieces were silly to add because I wanted justice for Lily that Ash wasn’t the greatest. Or I wish it was more smaller anger emotions that he apologized later because of his trauma. I think I was disappointed that Lily never got to share it. The true character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Outing, Death, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship