Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

10 reviews

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Death, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Vomit, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

cheesepuppy's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual content and Police brutality

tahsintries's review

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Excrement, Hate crime, and Violence

Minor: Racism and Alcoholism

moatzilla's review

challenging inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

lexa's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

A beautiful, breathtaking story of love in all forms. The love of friends, first love, romantic love, family love, community love, self love, and of course love of Madonna. But it is also so much more. It is a lesson in how far we've come in some ways and how far we still have to go in others. From the Author's Note: "This book is an ode to the heroes and heroines of the AIDS movement, activists who saved lives". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Grief, and Excrement

Minor: Blood, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcoholism

hmatt's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• 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

What a great read. The writing strikes that perfect balance where it's both appropriate for YA but not too simplified. There's just the right amount of focus each on family/friendships/romance for a coming-of-age novel. I also felt like it did a great job at being didactic without being preachy re: sex ed, queer history & culture, intersectional privilege, etc.

Where I had a small issue was with the main point of conflict - it just felt very contrived to me.

Spoiler

I guess I just didn't buy in that it would be such a big deal to Judy that Art had a crush on Reza, acted on before she and Reza started dating, was rejected, and then kept his distance for the duration of their relationship. It's believable that she would be upset to some degree, but the extent it went to didn't make a lot of sense to me.

I was able to look past this because the author didn't make it the only plot point. Yay, multi-dimensional storytelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Medical content, Police brutality, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

annaminunlukea's review

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Violence, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Bullying, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Grief, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Body shaming and Police brutality

achingallover's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

3.0

I cried a lot. I liked the note cards, especially the one on high school. 

Spoiler

I however didn't totally get why Judy was so angry with Art. I initially thought it was because she thought Reza and Art had been cheating on her together, and was a miscommunication. But Art hadn't acted on his feelings after Reza shut him down before his first date with Judy, so like, I really don't get that he'd done anything wrong? I understand the upset that Reza had used her in a way, but I don't see what Art had done that was so awful that she wouldn't speak to him for 6 months. Art was an interesting character, but could have done with some character development, and I'm not sure his POV added much given that he didn't seem to learn much throughout the book. I also didn't like how much pressure he put on Reza about sex, even whilst saying he wouldn't pressure him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Alcoholism and Religious bigotry

alenezela99's review

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is everything thing to me, I love every about it🥺🥺

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, and Homophobia

wardenred's review

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The most important four-letter word in our history will always be LOVE. That's what we are fighting for. That's who we are. Love is our legacy. 

Wow! This book was an incredibly emotional journey that encompassed everything I love about contemporary YA. Or, in this case, kinda contemporary? Near-contemporary? I just can't bring myself to feel that 1980s were long ago enough to call a novel set in late 1980s historical. Which may have something to do with my age. Let's not dwell on it.

The story is set at the height of the AIDS crisis, and AIDS plays a big part in it. It influences how the characters interpret the world around them and their own relationships. There's an important side character serving as a mentor to the teen MCs who's dying from AIDS. And with all that, this is quite probably the most life-affirming book I've read in a while. It feels like every page is urging the reader to live, to walk forward, to make connections, to make history. It's a celebration of youth, queerness, self-discovery, of choosing life and love, no matter the circumstances.

Beyond that, it's simply a beautiful coming-of-age story focusing on all the important things: messy crushes, complicated friendships, redefining relationships with parents as kids grow older, and most of all, figuring out who you are. I'm incredibly happy to have stumbled upon this book, and I'm looking forward to reading the author's other works!

 Read for the following September 2020 readathons:
- Monsterathon: BIPOC Author
- Coffee Readathon: Middle Eastern Author

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, and Homophobia