Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Small Pleasures

i have been reading five chapters of this every week, for class. during the process of reading it, i've heard a couple of my classmates saying they were enjoying the book but, honestly? i couldn't relate back then and i still can't. tbh i don't know what am i gonna do in my exam cause i can't remember anything besides the plot's important details, lmao.

i think the only characters i was invested with were gretchen and margaret and once their story became a subplot, my interest in the story. now that i have finished the book, looking back at it, i can empathize with jean and howard, however while reading, i just didn't feel any kind of affection towards any of them.

like, actually, i wasn't mad or sad at the end? of course jean and howard deserve a happy life, i guess, but it is what it is

maybe i'm just not used to reading books in english (i usually read them in spanish) but the writing felt dense at some parts and i just could not focus on what was going on. however, one thing i liked is how the author occasionally inserted jean's articles for the newspaper. although i think it was a cool detail, i think clare chambers could have done so much better.

i get that the book is set in the late fifties but the misogyny, lesbophobia and ableism were awful to read. like ok, gretchen and martha were going to be judged anyways so why not let them at least by happy by themselves? and what was the need to make victor neurodivergent? that's just an awful thing to write...

idk, all in all, i just can't see the point of the book. and i get that some stories are just pointless but this book just was not my cup of tea.

Content Warnings

steamybob's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

biareads100's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I'm so mad at this book. I hate it and love it at the same time. First of all the experience of reading this book was painful, the predictable plot, the pace how dark it was. But if you asked me to talk about this book now that I finished it i could talk for hours. I love the way it presented all the issues it raised. It truly made me think. Life comes with good things and bad things and we are here for the ride.

it talks about being a spinster, having the perfect societal life that you hate vs not having the perfect societal life and hating your life, having to take care of your parents more than they did of you( and the mother the real villain of the story egoism, being lonely yet never being free, being loved but never being able to love back, amazing amazing. We need to talk about the ending. Based on the dark ending of the miracle birth we can assume Howard's story took the darkest route. They did leave the Gretchen story open ended, as that guy was never sure to be the father so Howard could be injured or one of the survivers but again the book doesn't shy away from pain. Still i would've hoped after such a biter sweet book not to get the literal worst ending. Also nice nod to the fact he felt old like it's a bad thing when some people arent blessed to get to that age.

i can talk volumes about this book but the ending and the pacing would make me not recommend it

Content Warnings