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sromero0528's review
5.0
Wow
I don’t have the right words for this book review. This book is powerful and healing. It’s hard and hurts but it’s hopeful and it heals. I would give it 100 stars and recommend it a million times! A definite must read!!!
I don’t have the right words for this book review. This book is powerful and healing. It’s hard and hurts but it’s hopeful and it heals. I would give it 100 stars and recommend it a million times! A definite must read!!!
keflavin1's review against another edition
3.0
Slow-moving and predictable, but the main character October was original and intriguing.
carleneinspired's review against another edition
5.0
Find this review and others at Carlene Inspired.
I have tried to write this review several times, but I don't know how to put in words what this book meant to me. As a reader, it's a relatable story of love, loss, and life's lessons. As a human, it's a book about humanity, the art of living, and going after what you want in spite of it all. It's not even fair to call this just a romance, when Sorrow is so much more and it is apparent that Tiffanie DeBartolo put so much into it. Poignant, difficult, beautiful...there are so many words that can describe this read. It's not the rainbow and butterflies sort of love story with a tiny bit of drama the characters get through. This is main character Joe's story of life and letdowns and how they compiled into several losses that feel so great. It's the story of a man blowing like a leaf in the wind, unable to form roots like the tree he loves.
Joe isn't immediately likeable, but then again, a lot of people aren't when you peel back the layers. Joe Harper is real, his story is authentic, and in all its messiness, Sorrow is a work of art that I could not put down. Like God-Shaped Hole, Sorrow is existential literature, with Tiffanie DeBartolo's words taking Joe on a journey to figure out who he really is and what he's alive for. It's the kind of book you just have to pick up and start reading, you won't be let down.
ARC provided.
I have tried to write this review several times, but I don't know how to put in words what this book meant to me. As a reader, it's a relatable story of love, loss, and life's lessons. As a human, it's a book about humanity, the art of living, and going after what you want in spite of it all. It's not even fair to call this just a romance, when Sorrow is so much more and it is apparent that Tiffanie DeBartolo put so much into it. Poignant, difficult, beautiful...there are so many words that can describe this read. It's not the rainbow and butterflies sort of love story with a tiny bit of drama the characters get through. This is main character Joe's story of life and letdowns and how they compiled into several losses that feel so great. It's the story of a man blowing like a leaf in the wind, unable to form roots like the tree he loves.
Joe isn't immediately likeable, but then again, a lot of people aren't when you peel back the layers. Joe Harper is real, his story is authentic, and in all its messiness, Sorrow is a work of art that I could not put down. Like God-Shaped Hole, Sorrow is existential literature, with Tiffanie DeBartolo's words taking Joe on a journey to figure out who he really is and what he's alive for. It's the kind of book you just have to pick up and start reading, you won't be let down.
ARC provided.
jessreads82's review
4.0
This is the second book I’ve read by Tiffanie Debartolo. I loved God-Shaped Hole, but from that I also learned that I don’t fully trust the author on the journey she’s taking us on. However, even with the title of this book, it does have a satisfying sort of HEA.
First off, Debartolo is a beautiful writer. Every sentence seems to be crafted and honed to get the most meaning out of the fewest words. I was in awe of some of the sentences in this book:
“Art isn’t about people who are better than us showing us how much better they are, it’s about being reminded of the ways in which we are all the same…. it’s that there are two ways in which one can escape his or her sorrows. Art and love.”
Second, I love that music plays such a big role in her stories.
“Never trust a man who isn’t moved by song,” Cal reasoned. “It means he’s dead inside.”
That sentence 100% resonates with me. If people don’t get how music moves, there’s not a way I have to explain it, but it does question if you can be moved by anything at all if music doesnt do it.
Third, her characters are richly drawn and are unique people that move the story along. However, they always feel a step removed from the reader. Cal was the most accessible of the characters, but the other two MC were difficult for me to understand, and in some ways seemed like they’re idiosyncrasies were only there to move the story along. So while I know what it means for art to move me inside, unfortunately these characters didn’t move me.
Overall, I enjoyed this story and was really motivated to keep reading because of the beautiful writing (and because of Cal). But there were some issues with the story itself that I felt were brought up but never rectified. Like, really why was Joe so full of sorrow? Things were mentioned about his past, but it didn’t always make sense to me. And October…she gave the feeling of a manic pixie dream girl, moving the MC along, but always a step back from the reader in a way that was impossible to connect with her.
First off, Debartolo is a beautiful writer. Every sentence seems to be crafted and honed to get the most meaning out of the fewest words. I was in awe of some of the sentences in this book:
“Art isn’t about people who are better than us showing us how much better they are, it’s about being reminded of the ways in which we are all the same…. it’s that there are two ways in which one can escape his or her sorrows. Art and love.”
Second, I love that music plays such a big role in her stories.
“Never trust a man who isn’t moved by song,” Cal reasoned. “It means he’s dead inside.”
That sentence 100% resonates with me. If people don’t get how music moves, there’s not a way I have to explain it, but it does question if you can be moved by anything at all if music doesnt do it.
Third, her characters are richly drawn and are unique people that move the story along. However, they always feel a step removed from the reader. Cal was the most accessible of the characters, but the other two MC were difficult for me to understand, and in some ways seemed like they’re idiosyncrasies were only there to move the story along. So while I know what it means for art to move me inside, unfortunately these characters didn’t move me.
Overall, I enjoyed this story and was really motivated to keep reading because of the beautiful writing (and because of Cal). But there were some issues with the story itself that I felt were brought up but never rectified. Like, really why was Joe so full of sorrow? Things were mentioned about his past, but it didn’t always make sense to me. And October…she gave the feeling of a manic pixie dream girl, moving the MC along, but always a step back from the reader in a way that was impossible to connect with her.
fsmeurinne's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a unique story, Joe Harper's story is one I think will be with me for a long time, it was so refreshing from what I usually read in the best way possible. We get to know October a beautiful female artist and Cal Joe's childhood best friend. We get art, we get romance, we get friendship, nature, and everything that connects them. This book will give you flashbacks to Joe's past and combine them with the present. It's definitely a first-person POV story, about a very intriguing character and his life journey. It's one of those books so difficult to review because it just gets to you so deep. Definitely a must-read story for 2020, the whole experience will leave you leaving in another dimension for a while, when you try to put together everything you just experience with each paragraph you read. Tiffanie DeBartolo has such a unique way to write her stories that I simply love. This is a strong story, one you need to take time reading it, but in the end, you will understand why.
shile87's review
5.0
4.5 Just me gushing stars
This was amazing.
Gaaaah! What a wonderful story. A story about friendship-pure beautiful friendship, love, music, art and everything else in between.
Told in the single POV of Joe Harper, we are taken through a beautiful life journey of ups and downs in the best lyrical way of story telling. Joe is one complex, humanly character. I fell in love with him hard and understood some of the decisions he made. It is exactly what most of us would do.
The writing style did take me to another place, I was there with Joe and the trees, with Joe and his music, with Joe and Cal, with Joe and October. The music was soooo goood! The way through my peanut heart is to combine music and a good story! Tiffanie did that in the best way.
The other main/side characters, Cal and October were two amazing unique individual. October is such a weirdo, I love her. What a beautiful, complex, artsy woman. And Cal? Bless his heart. Gaaaahh!
This book was so intense, beautiful, realistic and sometimes so much in your face, definitely not for everyone.
This was amazing.
Gaaaah! What a wonderful story. A story about friendship-pure beautiful friendship, love, music, art and everything else in between.
Told in the single POV of Joe Harper, we are taken through a beautiful life journey of ups and downs in the best lyrical way of story telling. Joe is one complex, humanly character. I fell in love with him hard and understood some of the decisions he made. It is exactly what most of us would do.
The writing style did take me to another place, I was there with Joe and the trees, with Joe and his music, with Joe and Cal, with Joe and October. The music was soooo goood! The way through my peanut heart is to combine music and a good story! Tiffanie did that in the best way.
The other main/side characters, Cal and October were two amazing unique individual. October is such a weirdo, I love her. What a beautiful, complex, artsy woman. And Cal? Bless his heart. Gaaaahh!
This book was so intense, beautiful, realistic and sometimes so much in your face, definitely not for everyone.
kcsunshine25's review against another edition
5.0
Nearly the end of 2020 (thank fuck for that) and I just read a book that will make the best of the year list.
Sorrow is the kind of book that when I get to the end, I want to read again and look up all the places and things that are mentioned. And so I will. Pinterest board is under construction.
(Update: the second read is now done. Pinterest board is full of trees and guitars)
Is Joseph Robert Harper a coward?
I’ve been arguing this point in my head all day. I concluded that he isn’t. He’s just a man in fear of not being enough. He’s so consumed with the worry of causing upset to others that he would rather run away and sacrifice his own happiness.
Joe, feels things deeply. When he meets October Danko, an artist who can feel the emotions of others, the falling in love is gloriously inevitable.
I may have become newly obsessed with trees.
In fact I am obsessed with this book. It just did it for me. Everything. The guitars. The trees. The art. The love. The pain. The brotherhood. The feeling of inadequacy. The love of words. It’s perfect. Just perfect.
Sorrow is the kind of book that when I get to the end, I want to read again and look up all the places and things that are mentioned. And so I will. Pinterest board is under construction.
(Update: the second read is now done. Pinterest board is full of trees and guitars)
Is Joseph Robert Harper a coward?
I’ve been arguing this point in my head all day. I concluded that he isn’t. He’s just a man in fear of not being enough. He’s so consumed with the worry of causing upset to others that he would rather run away and sacrifice his own happiness.
Joe, feels things deeply. When he meets October Danko, an artist who can feel the emotions of others, the falling in love is gloriously inevitable.
I may have become newly obsessed with trees.
In fact I am obsessed with this book. It just did it for me. Everything. The guitars. The trees. The art. The love. The pain. The brotherhood. The feeling of inadequacy. The love of words. It’s perfect. Just perfect.
book_siren's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
rosameertens's review
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0