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A review by nicoleonbooks
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The characters felt relatable and human. There were funny, sweet, and sad moments. You're given feet-kicking levels of cute and teary eyed heartbreaks. This story of compounding loss and soul mate type love definitely deserves to hold space on your shelves.
However, this unfortunately isn't a completely perfect book. The second half of this book definitely saved my opinion of it. It felt more solid than the first half. The beginning seems to lack emotional foundation for some of the connections and conversations had between the characters. It felt very jarring and disconnected at times. TRIGGER WARNING: rape. Towards the very end of the novel, an explicit depiction of rape occurs and it is never discussed, or handled, as such. The authors focus on other issues surrounding the situation but never acknowledge it for what it was, nor do they talk about any sort of trauma, or healing, that followed as a result. This knocked my star review down further.
There are discussion questions at the back of the novel, which I am always delighted to read through.
However, this unfortunately isn't a completely perfect book. The second half of this book definitely saved my opinion of it. It felt more solid than the first half. The beginning seems to lack emotional foundation for some of the connections and conversations had between the characters. It felt very jarring and disconnected at times. TRIGGER WARNING: rape. Towards the very end of the novel, an explicit depiction of rape occurs and it is never discussed, or handled, as such. The authors focus on other issues surrounding the situation but never acknowledge it for what it was, nor do they talk about any sort of trauma, or healing, that followed as a result. This knocked my star review down further.
There are discussion questions at the back of the novel, which I am always delighted to read through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Car accident