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imstephtacular's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
That said, I felt like it tried to do too much. 400 pages was too long for my liking and the meta-ness didn’t quite hit for me. I liked that it got into industry details. That was fascinating! But the “is this romance or is it women’s fiction” ended up feeling muddled for me overall
I liked the characters and the mixed media elements (texts, emails) but this one wasn’t a knockout for me personally
Graphic: Medical content, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
nataliapassos's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Alcohol
atamano's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Ableism, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Infidelity, and Death of parent
eligru's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent
Minor: Drug abuse
cady_sass's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
nadia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
But, somewhere along the way, it fell a little bit flat, some of the spark was lost, and it seemed to drag a little. Some parts felt a little too contrived, especially with regards to trying to create tension. I was rooting for the central relationship, but just didn't end up feeling as emotionally invested or as excited for it as I thought I'd be given the first third of the book.
Still, the cast of characters was super fun, heavy topics are dealt with incredibly well, there's a real clever "meta" nature to this book, and, especially given that, this is definitely one to go for on audio if that's a format you consume books in!
Graphic: Death, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
maethereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
But... once these two met, it all fell apart for me. I suddenly didn't understand the characters' motivations for basically the rest of the novel... On top of that, all of the smaller storylines seemed to wrap up very quickly, which I found unrealistic and unnecessary.
And I'm not sure how to feel about the inclusion of this disability trope. It feels like it was just a device used by the author for a convenient storyline, and the character's handling of it, thinking about it, processing it, as well as that of her friends and family just did not ring true to me at all (coming from someone who became disabled as a young adult). Did Whalen talk to anyone who had gone through something like this? I hope so, but honestly it doesn't seem like it. So that's really disappointing. Disabled characters only included in books when it's convenient to make a storyline out of their disability... ugh.
Listened to this on audiobook and narration was great (obviously!).
Graphic: Dementia and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Death, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
jess_segraves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment and Alcohol
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
cristinareading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Dementia and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder, Racism, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
readingwithleslie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Dementia and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Death of parent