Review by lurieta - All's Well

lurieta 's review for:

All's Well by Mona Awad

4.75

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This surreal novel tells the story of Miranda, a college theater director in Boston who lives with extremely debilitating chronic pain after a fall off a theater stage shattered her burgeoning acting career and caused her to have to undergo surgery on her hip and physical therapy, among other treatments that aren't working. She is doing battle with her body and her students and co-director about their Spring play, which Miranda wants to be Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well." One night, Miranda goes after rehearsal to her and her colleague Grace's favorite dive bar, contemplating ending her life, when she meets three mysterious men who give her a drink, the golden remedy, which gives her the power to seek vengeance by inadvertently transferring her pain to those who have wronged her. As Miranda's health improves, the people she made sick (her nemesis student, her physical therapist), things are finally going her way, but at what cost? I really loved this weird novel for it's depiction of navigating how people treat you when you have chronic pain and how much we take our health for granted.

Content Warnings