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ottercorg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
On top of that, it took me almost half the book to really get into the story. I almost gave up, until things started to get interesting between Jean and Howard. That's precisely what kept me reading - the true plot of the book itself was not particularly interesting to me.
All in all, I don't have much to say about this novel from Chambers. I give it 3 stars because I think it was well written, I enjoyed Jean as a character (in many ways I feel I can relate to her), and once I got into it I did enjoy it.
But I have to say I hate how everything resolved. I could not be more disappointed, on all accounts.
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Dementia, Grief, Abortion, and Lesbophobia
jayisreading's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Death and Abortion
Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, and Medical content
Minor: Cancer, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, and War
bug_lightyear's review against another edition
3.25
But then it turns into a love affair with a married man, who is the husband of the main character's new friend, and when we understand that the "virgin birth" is actually likely
This book has many disabled/sick/chronically ill characters as well as lesbian characters, which should be great, but they are written to be detestable, annoying, and the fault for everything going wrong in everyone else's life.
I don't think I ever read a book where main characters have rheumatoid arthritis, and after my own experience in a rehab clinic I was interested to read about my counterpart in a 1950's sanatorium. But this place is used as the backdrop for a very sordid plot twist where the bad guy is a mentally ill teenager.
The lesbian love story could have been sweet, but the lover is portrayed as an annoying and dirty character who is just wrecking the almost perfect marriage of the main character's new friend.
We need more disability and queer rep in books, but not like that.
Finally the afterword feels quite tone deaf to me. The author heard about a tragedy fitting her timeline and uses it as a looming catastrophy about to happen to the characters, but we never read what happened. In the afterword the author writes that it was a horrific event that traumatised a generation of people, families and victims who still recount the events all these decades later. To have this traumatising event used as an "interesting" narrative device felt quite insensitive to me.
Moderate: Rape, Abortion, and Lesbophobia
gekesanne's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Lesbophobia
Minor: Rape
skudiklier's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Overall I liked this book. I knew absolutely nothing about it going in--not the premise, not the genre, nothing. I picked it solely based on the cover. Throughout the first half of it I just felt a sort of rising tension, as I waited for the shoe to drop. This book was well-written and while the ending devastated me, I don't think it should have been changed.
This book makes me want to read more by this author, because I really liked how well it showed tiny social things that feel hard to capture/explain but can make a real impact on how a situation feels or a relationship progresses. Small things that Jean worries over momentarily, that just felt really well-done.
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Sexual assault, and Abortion
Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Cancer, Incest, and Lesbophobia
mirrortower's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Chronic illness, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Minor: Sexual content and Lesbophobia
shonagh_catherine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
The character studies and relationships are natural and drag the reader into the story with our emotions being strung along watching these relationships develop. The variety of mother-daughter relationships explored and ultimately juxtaposed are enlightening, reassuring, and somewhat familiar to read.
However, whilst I enjoyed large parts of this book I have some issues with how the plot developed: specificall I was uncomfortable with the use of and treatment of certain characters who represent some marginalised groups within society who eneded up used as plot devices and were treated somewhat distastefully.
As for the last chapter... well I think ultimately that chapter is open to what the reader brings to it - I would argue the reader is invited to write their own ending to the novel (whether it be optimistic or not.) That being said I appreciate the issues many readers have felt with the final chapter which nearly seems to swallow whole and distort the optimism of the previous chapter.
Overall the novel has some gorgeous prose, littered with delicate descriptions of domestic life and the importance of friendships especially for those who are isolated. However, the novel also has some harsh interjections of crule reality and it reminds the reader that there may be a more sinister side to life which I found jarring at times given the over all tone of the novel.
Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
alisonannk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Abandonment
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
bibliothecolle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Infidelity and Abortion
Minor: Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual content, Dementia, and Lesbophobia
christinereichard's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I know a lot of people hated the ending, but I think it only drives the message home.
I would've restructured it though. I wouldn't have mentioned the train crash at the beginning of the book, and instead placed it right after the final chapter. That way, the "enjoy what you have while you can" message would still be there (sorry), but the date would be re-emphasized to show readers that Jean's article was pushed off the paper's front page. Double whammy.
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Chronic illness, Rape, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia