Reviews

After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell

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haz_bookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad fast-paced

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? No

5.0

lenin_lover_69's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I've never read a MOF book before but I know a lot of people love her so was really excited. This book left me pretty cold, I'm going to try one of her later ones.

I enjoyed the writing a lot more

after John dies and the writing about grief felt soooo much more authentic than anyhing prior to that.

The main character Alice unfortunately was giving borderline manic pixie dream girl/not like other girls and I'm extremely turned off about female characters for who the primary part of their personality is that they are hot and damaged and therefore men constantly fall in love with them in spite of a pretty unpleasant and annoying personality. The writing around

her and John falling in love and having sex made me cringe sooo much esp when they go to the lake district. Why does this adult man have the inner diallogue of a 12 year old seeing a naked woman for the first time!!!!!

.

I enjoyed the storyline that related to Alice's family much more on the whole, especially her maternal grandmother.

Content Warnings

olivia_rose1999's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

beckyquick's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Given that I'll probably one day read all of Maggie O'Farrell's books I thought I'd better start reading them in order!

So her debut, having read her most recent work I would say it is not quite as need and tidy as her more recent books and I felt that the pacing and structure could have been improved at times. Having said that, as always the actual writing is incredible and it is another example of Maggie writing about grief in a heart-wrenchingly real way. This probably isn't one I'd recommend strongly to others unless you're very into this kind of story but was still an enjoyable read for me.

judenoseinabook's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow. What an emotional roller coaster. Wonderful book.
One of the most telling portraits of grief I have ever read.
The story jumps around in time person and place but somehow it all fits together like a jigsaw. The ending is enigmatic, but fits.
Maggie O'Farrel is a brilliant writer! This is the 4th one of hers I've read now and I must read the rest soon.