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reneesquared's review
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
When I first began reading, I saw the lack of quotation marks and couldn't help but sigh thinking I'd been roped into another Sally Rooney-esque book. What I found instead was a much more compelling reason for the lack of quotation marks. The giving of stories, what tragedies to divulge, the complicated nature of love and obsession and how we remember our lives in light of grief.
I will admit that this story was hard for me to get through in the beginning. I wasn't compelled by the relationship between the main character and her boyfriend and while I empathized -while knowing I shouldn't- with the main character, it felt very bleh.
Once I hit the narrator's grandmother exploring and explaining her life, the story really began to to take shape and made it impossible for me to put down. And then the story made me want to prolong the inevitable end just so I could spend more time with this family. Very much mimicking the feelings of our main character once she begins to unravel her family's fraught and strained history.
I've come to recognise that the beginning of the book was really warming us up to the discoveries we are revealed by the end. This book (along with my last) have truly made me reconsider my perspective on generational stories and I think this genre will quickly characterise the rest of my reading year.
This story weaves politics, grief, obsession, devotion and love altogether in such a way that I want to read it all over again, just to connect the dots that I may have missed upon first reading.
I will admit that this story was hard for me to get through in the beginning. I wasn't compelled by the relationship between the main character and her boyfriend and while I empathized -while knowing I shouldn't- with the main character, it felt very bleh.
Once I hit the narrator's grandmother exploring and explaining her life, the story really began to to take shape and made it impossible for me to put down. And then the story made me want to prolong the inevitable end just so I could spend more time with this family. Very much mimicking the feelings of our main character once she begins to unravel her family's fraught and strained history.
I've come to recognise that the beginning of the book was really warming us up to the discoveries we are revealed by the end. This book (along with my last) have truly made me reconsider my perspective on generational stories and I think this genre will quickly characterise the rest of my reading year.
This story weaves politics, grief, obsession, devotion and love altogether in such a way that I want to read it all over again, just to connect the dots that I may have missed upon first reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Chronic illness and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit
suzyreadsbooks's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
gifted by the publisher
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, and Police brutality
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