Reviews

Welcome to Dorley Hall by Alyson Greaves

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estronaut's review

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dark emotional slow-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

4.25

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riffmonkey's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.75

I enjoyed this book very much and read through it in like 4 days. Which for me is very quick, especially for this many pages. I was apprehensive about the premise of the story, I feel it could have gone in a very bad direction and the topic is very delicate if some incorrectly. But it was done in a great way.

Greaves does something I love which is, that she talks about heavy topics and very clearly unethical and morally grey things but doesn't make that the focus. We are not supposed to think something of it. The book doesn't push you into thinking this is horrible and great, it doesn't scream at you to look at society as something that many literary books do that I hate. It just lets you enjoy the story with these characters. It goes deep into this world but doesn't encroach on the real world. It doesn't puncture the story and sully it with pressing questions about how this should change your perceptions and shit like that.

I noticed halfway through the book that these chapters are posted online and thus written a chapter at a time. It made me read the book in a different way. It felt very slow and didn't really have the arch or structure I would expect from a standalone or even a book in a series. But now that I know that it is just a much bigger story cut into pieces it makes more sense. Although I could argue this novel should have ended a chapter earlier for it to be more cenmented as a book 1, with a nicer ending line and closure I don't mind it as much as I would have had I not known the origins of the story in that way.

corvid's review

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funny sad slow-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

becisatree's review

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dark emotional reflective slow-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

cmddx's review

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective fast-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

klrnshelves's review

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

aether's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

I tore through this book in a single day - there were so many facets of transitioning and trying to make it out in the world as a fresh woman in your 20s that I related with so heavily. This book has made me reflect at both my early transition and the stage of my transition I'm currently at. I find I'm jealous of the community described in the book - the proximity and the desire to change and be changed, love and be loved. A pressure cooker for trans women. I had a similar experience with my transition occurring through COVID, but I was so isolated in it. In this book, I was sucked into the world within the halls of Dorley and rooting for everyone one of the women to grow. Plus, some of the internet humor in this book is just too spot on!

diamond_dynamo's review

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emotional reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really really liked this book. I don't really know how to write a review, so I'll just say that as a transfem, it's fantastic to read a really good book that's very clearly by a trans person, for trans people

Spoiler

, and about a trans person

. Would absolutely recommend

aziraphales_left_shoe's review

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dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective 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

4.75

tbrnichols's review

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emotional inspiring tense fast-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

I was really struck by how often the interactions between the Dorley girls seem like a really healthy t4t bond. Even though they are not trans in the traditional sense they go through a lot of the same experiences and I found the optimism in their interactions with each other to be really nice. This book is extremely funny and kind to its characters but it also shows ways in which they fall short and asks for them to do better. I also really liked the pacing and depth of this book, like it covers an almost shockingly small amount of time given the premise of the book but I really appreciated getting to spend that much time with the characters in specific and intimate scenes.

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