Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

83 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-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

5.0

Oh lord. How do I describe this book? When I read it was like a Little Women retelling I was a tad scared because I didn't know what to expect. Let me tell you to expect to laugh, cry, and smile at this beautiful book. I was skeptical about the first few chapters but then Napolitano throws you a curve ball and ramps the pace right up! The characters are complex and beautifully developed, the story manages to be funny, sad, and reflective of family and love all at the same time. The end is beautiful and unexpected (I cried for like 80 pages no joke!) but perfectly closes out the book and all loose ends. I wish I could read this again for the first time because i'd appreciate it more! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Terminal illness, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Mental illness, Body horror, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

kerry123's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

kcarney86's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Cancer, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Death, Child death, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

vidotson's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Child death, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide attempt, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Homophobia

cat_is_turning_pages's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

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

0.25

Truly Awful

Within my first couple hours of listening to this book, I began to question why the author had written it. Given the high accolades this book has received, I kept an open mind and gave the novel the benefit of the doubt until the very last word of the very last chapter.

This book is slow, depressing, and morally chaotic. The main characters tend to be unlikeable and make stupid decisions that ruin their lives. But instead of teaching these characters any lessons, the author chooses to have one of these characters “meaningfully” declare how proud she is of herself for making her stupidest decision decades after it was made.

The only conclusion I have been able to come to is that this book was written as an apologetic piece for cruel behavior and/or bad decisions. The moral of the story is a combination of “love conquers all” and “you should forgive your family members no matter what they do.” 

Forgiveness can be a wonderful path to freedom. However, it can also be used by selfish people to justify mistreating others. This story contained both types of forgiveness, but tried to pass all of it off as the former. 

The cover and title seem to promise a glimpse into the beauty of the human condition, but Hello Beautiful is one of the ugliest books I have ever read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Child death, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer and Terminal illness

Minor: Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Incest

Plot Synopsis / Spoilers:

Newly married father attempts suicide while his wife's sister falls in love with him and begins spending every day with him in the mental hospital. The young father divorces his wife and gives up legal parenthood of his infant daughter. The divorced wife, who has just been betrayed three times by being abandoned as a wife, coparent, and sister, moves away and heroically builds a new life for her and her new daughter. Her ex-husband and sister, who never offer a true apology, get married and enjoy life with the sisters' extended family while the ex-wife/sister is made to feel guilty by her extended family for leaving them. Eventually the sister who married her sister's ex-husband dies of cancer and is made to seem like some kind of saint. In the end, the father reluctantly meets his adult daughter only because she tracks him down.

mrsjburgin's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Child death, Grief, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

gabsoto20's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

“When your love for a person is so profound that it’s part of who you are, then the absence of the person becomes part of your DNA, your bones, and your skin.”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

3.5

With the possible exception of The Color Purple, this book has the best opening line I've ever read. The crafting of this story is excellent throughout. I loved William's character and story arc, even when the choices he made were infuriating, and found each of the Padavano sisters to be compelling, three-dimensional characters.  There were characters I wanted more of at the beginning and the end of the story, particularly Charlie and Alice, although I recognise this would have made for a very long book. I don't think this is a story with main characters, and trying to shoehorn Julia/Sylvie/William into this role at various times meant the world as a whole lost something for me.

For some reason, despite being technically excellent and enjoying reading it while it was in front of me, the story took me a long time to wade through. I appreciated that the plot moved quite quickly, as otherwise I feel it could have fallen into bleak and melancholic territory. I was also irritated by the death at the end of the story, but I can't work out if it was actually just thrown in as a plot device or if I just liked the character who dies a lot. There were also some subplots that were introduced and then never seemed to go anywhere or get mentioned again. 

Overall I would recommend this book as a compelling and moving set of character studies, but I wouldn't say it bears much resemblance to what the blurb and marketing suggests. This is not really a story about romantic love, but about the choices we make when there are no good choices in all kinds of relationships.

I'm excited to read Little Women next and see how many parallels there are between the two books, as other people have said!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Child death, and Religious bigotry

cnannery19's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

kiwichill's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

I can relate so much to the sisters in this book for deeply personal reasons.  My mum passed away from a brain tumour in 1991.  This book reverberates in my heart for so many reasons,  and will stay with me for the rest of my life

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Child death

Moderate: Biphobia, Alcohol, Homophobia, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Body shaming, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Pregnancy, Cancer, and Cursing