A review by tiredfangirl
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

I was so torn about how to star rate this book. The themes were incredibly well developed looking back from the end, but I think as I was reading it felt like a lot of stuff was going nowhere. 

In terms of the characterization, I didn’t like any of the characters for about the first half of the book. I get that it was building towards the larger themes, but it meant that I wasn’t really enjoying reading it. I also really felt like for a book with such complex characters otherwise, Julia and Rose got very one-note characterizations.
I’m more forgiving of Charlie’s 2-note characterization because I think it makes a point about how we idealize people after death, but I wish she had DONE something with that.


Despite all that, I couldn’t seem to put it down. So… 4/5 I guess? But definitely 5/5 at times and 2/5 at times. 
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