Reviews with content warning for Grief - Violet y Finch

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Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Violet y Finch by Jennifer Niven

216 reviews

sophienocturne's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

1.0

If you enjoyed 13 Reasons Why, The Fault In Our Stars and Paper Towns then you'll love this book. Unfortunately I did not, so to me it's just another YA book that romanticises suicide and has pretentious main characters that quote dead poets at each other. I found it very depressing and I'm not sure what the point of it all was.

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naoml's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-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

4.0

The writing in this book is abrasive, but that's what makes it so honest. It's not a perfect book but it's a poignant representation of mental illness and the different ways it manifests. This book doesn't bullshit you with romanticism or a perfect ending, it is very realistic about pain and closure.

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wet_towlette's review against another edition

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

2.0

Here is a list of thoughts I had while reading this book, as it might be the only way to articulate the experience of reading this:

The dad is a Canadian hockey player 😭😭

Bro you're quoting Virginia Wolf keep it in your pants

I just know this author is one pretentious fucker

he won’t play baseball because he doesn’t want to be a black stereotype are you serious right now who does this white ass author think she is

“Did you hit that yet or what” 🧍‍♀️

Is he smoking in gym class

Why didn’t they just get the other voice actor to do the dialogue for their character. Like why is this man pretending to be a teenage girl crying when you have a woman actress

“She is different from all other girls” bro shut up

“Vampire Diaries is life” this is so real and based

“Clothes off, m*dget” 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️

Stop talking about space I'm scared

Am I supposed to feel sad now

This is a sad ass authors note I feel a little bit bad now but kinda not really

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a_h0204's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

5.0

The only slower-paced book (that I've read) that did it in such a way that it genuinely added deeper meaning to the story. I don't believe I'll ever be able to put into words just how much this book means to me.

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ikena's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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clarkf87's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

“What a terrible feeling to love someone and not be able to help them.”

“It’s not what you take, it’s what you leave.”

“You are all the colors in one in full brightness.”

***𝑻𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑮𝑬𝑹 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮: 𝑺𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆, 𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒔𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏***

Violet Markey and Theodore Finch find themselves in the bell tower at school. Who stopped who from jumping? Regardless, they keep each others’ secret and form a trauma bond that turns into romance. But while Violet lives for the future, Finch lives moment by moment, and his time is almost up.

This heartbreaking, gut wrenching book was very well written but there were many moments I wanted to throw my phone and scream. Definitely ugly cried in the woods after I finished this one. Luckily the last hour of the book provides closure to bring you back to earth.

The author’s note at the end reveals that she lost her boyfriend in high school to suicide as well as others in her life, making this story very special and therapeutic to her.

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readingsokrates's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.5

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bookw0rmj1nx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

such an incredible, tragically beautiful book.

i wish we got to know more about violet’s magazine but I can see why it was left the way it was.

Content Warnings

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Starting off with what I disliked.

While I appreciate the author’s note and how personal this book is to the author, and how there was a lot of research into mental health and suicide, I could not see much past how badly certain topics were portrayed. Not in the way of “everyone grieves differently” or “this is real life” because all of that is true- this book did not need a happy ending and it was important to include a lot of the stuff we wish did not happen- but in how some things that were very inappropriate or not recommended were not even touched upon.

For example, when Violet tells her parents about her suicide attempt while also at the same time revealing she still was seeing Finch , all the parents mentioned aside from working to make sure Finch was okay is their disappointment. Yeah that probably was in relation to Violet’s disobedience but she literally mentioned she almost took her life and that is never addressed again by her parents.

One thing I wish there was more of in the book was that suicide support group. Although that was not really a realistic portrayal of a group (at least one that is run well) as they literally had everyone share their diagnoses and method of previous suicide attempt (which today goes against safe suicide messaging) introducing another part of who Amanda was was really nice even if she did horribly out Finch to Violet despite her knowing how much she would hate of anyone knew she herself was there.Although it was all nice when Ryan and Amanda joined Violet and Finch’s other friends for a tribute to Finch, we did not have enough character development of Amanda and especially Ryan to justify them being any different from the other mourners at the school who at best never paid any attention to Finch and at worst tormented him.

Also, Finch was pretty coercive and pushy towards Violet such as when he ripped up her note twice when she did not have a direct “yes” … like cool, you are looking for direct consent but you did not except anything but that.

And now, what I appreciated!

I did like Finch’s counselor - he was genuine and even though he started out kind of “eh” for me, he was actually direct with Finch and tried so much to help him beyond actually making him get additional help, which he acknowledges he could have done more anyway. And also, people need to want to get help and Finch did, multiple times. But even the people who fight most against suicide- for themselves and others- end up dying by suicide. And even though people say this book romanticized suicide (which I can see, especially with Violet going on the journey to visit the remaining wandering spots), I think having seen Finch in so many different states of mind- the backs and forths of what his illness does to him, and how he KNEW he wanted to live at so many points, and appreciated life and being awake- he still ended up taking his life. And that happens… a lot. Some of the best advocates for suicide prevention die by suicide even with years of saying “there is always help” and “I am here for you”. I am a suicide prevention advocate myself but also know that a lot of messaging around suicide prevention can make it seem like loved ones did something wrong or did not try hard enough. This books gets that right- how that is in no way true and suicide prevention is not about you as one person preventing a suicide but it is a collective effort across the lifespan for people to recognize the signs, and have the resources to help both themselves and others.

Closing thoughts:
While I clearly disliked this book overall, I am so glad I read it. As a suicide prevention advocate it is interesting to me to read and watch different portrayals of mental health and suicide over time. Even since this was written in 2015, so much has changed to where I know the movie addressed some things that this book did not (although I need to watch it still). I feel like if I read it around when it came out, I would have loved this as I did Thirteen Reasons Why.

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lucyrudd's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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