Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

74 reviews

tiffanielle's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

sarahflanders's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Death of parent, Cancer, and Grief

madoherty93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

martieliz's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

writersrelief's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.0

 

A decades-spanning family saga, Ann Napoliano’s heart-wrenching, lovely novel HELLO BEAUTIFUL takes more than a page from another American classic, Louisa May Alcott’s LITTLE WOMEN. 

 

HELLO BEAUTIFUL begins with William Waters, whose wealthy parents’ bereavement over the untimely loss of William’s older sister causes them to withdraw. Neglected and unloved, William finds solace on the basketball courts, but a knee injury makes a professional career unlikely. During college, he meets the bright and ambitious Julia Padavano—along with her three sisters Sylvia, Cecelia, and Emeline. Over the next few decades, the family confronts devastating loss, depression, and riffs that tear them apart. When one of the sisters fall ill, will the Padavano family finally be able to reunite? 

 

Like its inspiration, HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a tearjerker that wears its heart on its sleeve. While some readers may feel their emotional buttons being pushed a little too aggressively, it is still easy to emotionally invest in the characters, their individual journeys, and how their family dynamics change over a long period of time. This is because Napolitano draws her characters with carefully coordinated and nuanced strokes. These aren’t characters that readers will always like or agree with—Julia, specifically, makes several understandable mistakes in the aftermath of a traumatic event—but their motivations are always clear. Readers familiar with LITTLE WOMEN will have an especially fun time observing the parallels and reversals, but will probably feel impending dread when one of the characters states “I’m Beth” (if you know, you know). 

 

An emotionally compelling story of an ever-changing and evolving family, HELLO BEAUTIFUL is a lovely, luminous book for readers of character-driven fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Lesbophobia

fullybookedwithdanielle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Terminal illness, Death, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide

rachelpacz's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This book is full of sadness! I like the story telling. I like the set up, but it felt like gut punch after gut punch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Mental illness, Death, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cancer

jessicaharper213's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, and Suicide attempt

ella_gus's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this book, especially the back half. It's a story about love and generational trauma and forgiveness and the flaws that make us human. It's sort of soapy but not enough to disengage me. The author definitely "tells" instead of "shows" but it didn't bother me too much. Overall, I really enjoyed the narrative and I would recommend it to someone looking for an easy read with a little more substance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Child death, and Grief

kirstym25's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy