Reviews with content warning for Cancer - Someone Else's Shoes

Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes

27 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed The Giver of Stars and the Me Before You series and wanted to see more of her work. This book was the first one where it seemed like a mission to finish it, and I didn’t really enjoy it.

This book has two points of view. The first is Nisha Cantor and she has been living the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope – she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because of Sam Kemp – the second point view. She is in the bleakest point of her life, and she has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag – she's struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change and that thing is herself.

The issue I had with this book that I hated both main characters; they were both so selfish and stuck up even though they were from “different worlds”. I get it, both of their husbands were so shitty people, but don’t be even shitter please. I also understand that these two were going through equally traumatic things but again, so is everyone don’t be a shitty person. People were obviously going to judge Nisha, she was an American walking round London screaming and in barely any clothes, I would have thought she belonged in a loony bin especially with how rude she was being. I don’t understand why she didn’t just go straight to the police or the embassy, they would have helped her. Sam was doing okay at her job but she was getting shit from her boss and then her husband is dealing with depression and yet all she’s complaining about is not being seen, like mental health is a rough subject and then she’s not being empathic and then just shouting at him, like her daughter was more empathic even if she thought Sam was having an affair (she might not have been having a text book affair, but she was definitely cheating). Sam needed to stand up for herself more and filled a complaint against her boss from HR, but again she was just like not my life. How many of us have got a crappy boss and still carry on with work? She wasn’t even looking to find a job and one just magically fell in her lap. The pacing of the book was so slow and both character’s inner thoughts was just boring, and I ended up skimming most of them where they weren’t talking to people, and they were just thinking about things. I would have liked more to do with the case, did Nisha testify? How did this go down with her rich friends? Did they all come out of the woodworks and support Nisha?

Even though all the men in this book should have been shitty and have done shitty things. Phil’s depression and anxiety and him trying to talk to a therapist were so real and I liked watching him grow and realize that the depression isn’t taking over his life and showing how much of a struggle it is for men to open up with people. If Sam knew that Phil’s dad was begging and demeaning him to get him to kill him. Like you know how shitty that is? How would Sam feel, I bet that she would take her mum and dad complaining over random things that her dad calling her things to die. Aleks was so sweet as well and sort of proved that the best men and the most romantic doesn't have to be filthy rich, they can be homely and a gentleman and still be a head chef and things. I liked the friendship that developed but Jasmine was a saint to deal with Nisha just because she’s a good person.

This was a disappointment for me and hoping that the next Jojo Moyes book I read is better than this and more like The Giver of Stars.

Content Warnings

jackgoss's review

Go to review page

dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Content Warnings

runbeck's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

3.5

I really like how Moyes can handle heavy emotions sensitively, but can also delve into the ridiculous. Parts of this book were almost slapstick, and I was so here for it.

There's no getting away from it; the first half is pretty bleak, and the toxic masculinity is alive and well in an awful way. You know (or hope) that things are going to improve but for a while it feels like a drag getting to that point. Once Nisha and Sam's paths cross properly then the story gets really fun, and not a moment too soon.

My absolute favourite part of this book was seeing four completely different women come together and basically plan a heist. It's so much fun and pretty empowering. And the end manages not to be too predictable; there are touches that I didn't see coming, so even though it pretty much ends as expected, it is fun to see how we get there.

Content Warnings