Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

31 reviews

kharlan3's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Death, Sexual content, Excrement, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Genocide, Abortion, and Pregnancy

tinana's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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: Bullying, Death, Homophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs, Violence, Xenophobia, and Vomit

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, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Excrement, and Grief

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

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.

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, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

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

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

xoodlebooks's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, Xenophobia, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, and Death of parent

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

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. 

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, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

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, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Death of parent

beckyann1110's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book gave me a headache from sobbing so much, and not just because Michael Crouch (who also narrated The Great Believers) was part of the audiobook cast and seems to have a shortcut straight to my feelings. While the book description is accurate, it's truly much more. Highly recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Grief, and Medical trauma

alisazhup's review

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• 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

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide, Blood, and Police brutality