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asurasantosha's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The themes of this book are really challenging though and broaching a controversial topic and showing all the nuance and grey area, I think was done really well.
I still don't know how I feel about the conclusion of everything though. I'm trying to separate my conflict about the topic at hand with the characters involved. Like, while I loved the banter between Will and Louisa, at the end of the day, I'm not sure Will is a good person. And I think he seems quite shallow and unwavering in those shallow values. But I think we the reader is supposed to feel sympathy for him and maybe even try to route for him or care about his intentions and logic. But his intense certainly is just so off-putting to me. Idk.
Anyway, I think this book is supposed to be a bit uncomfortable and it's supposed to make you think (and cry). So I'm not gonna rate it on enjoyment. I'd rather rate it on the success of what it's set out to do. And this book may be very successful in that regard. But I'm just gonna give it 3 stars for now because I'm still working out wether or not the theme is resting on an overly convenient lack of arc and too static character and wether or not that's ok.
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Rape, Dementia, Car accident, and Alcohol
Minor: Blood and Vomit
azileotulp's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There were a lot of things in general I liked about the book. I really liked Louisa and Will, and even if I found both of them frustrating at times, I also had sympathy for both. My biggest issue throughout the book was definitely the other characters, specifically Louisa's family. I could not stand Katrina at all, and the same thing with Patrick. I'm fine with characters being bad people, but they were both just so unnecessarily annoying and I thought it was frustrating how there was never really any justice. They were just bad people who got to do bad things without consequences. I didn't really like Louisa's dad either (not a fan of constantly calling your kid fat). I was mostly okay with Louisa's mom, and felt pretty bad for her at times, but she really bothered me at the end. Her grandpa and Thomas are honestly fine, but that's not really a compliment since they don't do that much anyway.
I did really like Camilla. Like I said before, I'm fine with characters being bad people, and while I don't think Camilla is totally awful, I can definitely see how she could be perceived that way. I feel like she had a lot more depth than Katrina or Patrick, and definitely a more tragic life, so I felt a lot more sympathy for her acting the way she did.
Overall, I did enjoy the book. There were times where I felt like the plot halted a bit, but those moments usually had nice character moments, so I can forgive it.
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Medical content, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Grief, and Classism
vanesst's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood and Alcohol
readers_syndrome's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, and Suicide attempt