Reviews with content warning for Grief - Someday, Maybe

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli

83 reviews

michellemalonza's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

The book is a difficult yet comforting read for anyone struggling with grief and looking to find language for their experience. Onyi Nwabineli uses repetition to paint a detailed and heartbreaking depiction of the constant nature of grief. The author is also able to introduce us to how Africanness impacts the process of grief and what a death by suicide can mean for people in different degrees of relation to the deceased. We're also able to see how people shift responsibility around when a person who doesn't stereotypically present as unhappy/depressed dies this way.

Content Warnings

deolivetree's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Raw depiction of grief

Content Warnings

ellaluka's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad

5.0

Amazing. Drenched in sadness & exploring the depths of grief, but the way in which her family & friends are ferociously loyal & carry the narrator through?! ugh my heart 💔❤️‍🩹

Content Warnings

holliejoy's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

badmom's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Simply put - this is a deeply beautiful account of the vast range of emotional reactions to suicide, and the disparate forms love & support & grief might take. Our narrator is understandably distraught over her husband’s death; his mother’s response, extreme in its ugly vindictiveness, is also shown to be understandable, in a way. Everyone in Q’s orbit is shaken by his death but shows their sorrow in different ways, leaving his widow feeling even more unmoored as she tries (or doesn’t) to find a path forward.
We are treated to the sweet and sometimes bittersweet history of this couple and with that we see the unfolding of characters that reveals layers of relationships. Nwabineli’s writing is subtly astute in the ways it shows growth in even the slightest of characters - she makes us notice everyone and compels us consider their stories within our own stories while allowing connections we might otherwise resist.

Content Warnings

teacupsandfirereads's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

This was not what I expected, but I am not sure how or why. This was presented in a way that makes a hard topic readable. I do think it was done well, but still felt the writing was lacking and felt juvenile in some sense. I didn't liked the main characters in parts, but I also understood her. Overall, I didn't connect with the book the way I wanted to.

Content Warnings

ttnnllrr's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book is about our main character, Eve, and her life after discovering her husband’s dead body after he took his own life on New Year’s Eve. Nwabineli really shows the reader the true, raw grief of losing a loved one, in ways I’ve never seen before. It’s horrible, awful, and gut wrenching, but so incredibly insightful into one of many ways grief can transform us.

At the beginning of the book, Eve spends much of her time in bed and the rest throwing up in the toilet. She binge drinks and takes pills to keep her from the waking world, only to be haunted with nightmares about her husband Q, and her guilt for being unable to save him.
We witness a loving, close knit family surrounding and supporting Eve every step of the way, no matter how many times she tries to push them away or cling too close.

Eve’s mother in law, Aspen, who had already shown hatred for her simply because she is Nigerian and not the ‘rich white girl’ Aspen always wanted Q to marry, blames Q’s death on Eve and will not rest until what remains of Eve’s life is set aflame.

Then, everything changes.

Eve gets in an accident and discovers that she is pregnant with Q’s baby. She must now come to terms with her future as a widow and a single mother, and get her shit together for her kid.

This book was hard to read at times, the grief truly just oozed off the page and Eve’s decision were sometimes hard to get behind. Another reason was the fighting between Eve and her sister, Gloria, because while I understand, I also don’t know how you get mad at someone who had just lost the love of their life to something so brutal as suicide. Like I said, it was frustrating at times, but I also think that’s what makes it a great representation of grief. It’s never meant to be light and easy, it’s hard and ugly and at times violent.

I really appreciated the ending as well, because while it’s not quite a happy ending, per se, it’s clear that it’s headed in that direction at a realistic pace.

Content Warnings

andreamichelle's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad slow-paced

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

Review:

Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli is a novel about grief. Full stop. After the unexpected death of her husband by suicide, Eve must grieve without closure and deal with a mother-in-law from hell who blames her for her son’s death. Nwabineli unflinchingly confronts the ugly, terrifying, messiness of grief head-on. Eve does not respond to her loss with dignity or strength—she careens into a bottomless pit of despair and does not begin to crawl out of it for months. She self-destructs and pulls everyone around her, including the reader, into the vortex of her pain. The result is a book that is excruciating to read; Eve’s pain is raw and unrelenting, and it’s hard not to become frustrated with her as she utterly fails to take responsibility for herself and behaves selfishly toward her friends and family. For some readers, Eve’s privilege might make her an unlikable or unrelatable character. After all, she shows little gratitude for her Herculean familial support system and the financial security that allows her to quit her job. However, in giving Eve access to anything that a grieving person could possibly need, Nwabineli underscores the way that grief is an inherently destructive force, even in cases of extraordinary privilege.

Someday, Maybe is a well-written debut that deftly traverses moments of heart, humor, and heartbreak. The book is illuminated by its rich cast of characters that make up Eve’s British Nigerian family and her friends, all of whom display strength and compassion in their own ways. One only wishes that the vibrancy with which Nwabineli constructs these side characters and their relationships carried over to Eve and her dead husband, Quentin. Despite the fact that the book is ostensibly dedicated to these two characters and their marriage, something about these two never quite feels authentic—almost like a rom-com relationship peppered with hinted moments of darkness rather than a realistic romantic relationship. The novel does an incredible job painting a portrait of grief and a British Nigerian family, but its inability to paint a strong enough portrait of its main character and her husband prevent it from reaching the level of a masterpiece.

The Run-Down:

****PLEASE READ TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS BOOK!***

michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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? No

4.25

From the very beginning, this book hits you with the harsh realities of grief and it just keeps it up. I loved how real and raw the emotions and thoughts were as well as the sprinkling in of humor. I listened to this on audio and the narrator was fantastic. There were a few points when the characters' actions didn't really make sense to me, or just didn't sit right. Overall, a very good read.

Content Warnings

More...