Reviews tagging 'Death'

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

19 reviews

lauradanby's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

4.0

Where ‘Boy swallows universe’ felt like a love letter to Dalton’s family, ‘Lola in the mirror felt like a love letter to Brisbane. Living in Brisbane my whole life and being able to see the city through Dalton’s eyes was a treat. His inclusion of magical realism also gave a sparkle to the city. 

The use of artwork and extended metaphors used throughout are absolutely beautiful. 

I also enjoyed Dalton’s commentary on ‘houselessness’, the welfare system, cost of living, and the impact that the upcoming Olympics is having on the city. 

However, I did find that the middle of the novel did drag a bit at times. I also felt like at times he drew from the same formula of ‘Boy swallows universe’ where he ended the story with an epic cat and mouse chase which I did find myself skilling over a bit at times. 

I also felt like all the loose strings tied up a bit too nicely and conveniently which did detract from the overall message I felt. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

amylee_21's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

peachybee53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

It's difficult to put into words, but this book has reminded me to believe in art and magic and love of all kinds. Trent Dalton has a really beautiful way of twisting darkness and beauty together in a way that feels both poetic and like a genuine reflection of real-life.

Our protagonist is endearing, honest, creative, intuitive, curious and determined. A dreamer whose ultimate goal is to find herself. She has the ability to see strangers in their quiet moments and wants nothing more than to be seen in return.

Some favourite quotes:

"The world turns for us all. One day you'll wake up and you'll realise the world has turned back upright for you and every bad thing you didn't deserve on the downside is made up for by every good thing rushing at you on the upside. You'll look up one day and see some face and suddenly it'll all make sense and all that bad downside stuff will seem entirely necessary. It'll just be ordinary life, it'll just be the normal turning of the world, but it'll feel miraculous to you. It'll feel engineered for you. It'll feel designed, drawn up by one of those crazy sketches you do. You'll call it fate. You'll say it was meant to be. And maybe it was. Because that's all the world was ever meant to do. Turn. And you were meant to turn with it."

"Lucky moon, she told herself, because every moon you see is lucky because you are still alive to see it."

"When you scream 'colourful' underwater it looks and sounds like you're screaming 'I love you." 

"Being alive is a thing that you touch and see and feel. As real a thing as electricity. Do you feel that? It's The Alive."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and Sexual harassment

baikiebookie's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My favourite Trent Dalton book! The pace was medium for most of the time and then it gets fast towards the end. Other Trent dalton books make me lose my focus half way through, but the pacing is much more steady. I love the geographical references. Other books did this a bit too much, but I didn’t feel it with this one. 

I didn’t get the whole police officer saying it’s the saddest story ever heard. The story was saddest but didn’t live up to the hype of the saddest story ever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

madiblissbooks's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

shannydubs's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

livdom's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault, and Grief

judyrigby's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-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

This book is both heart-warming and heart-breaking; it's eye, mind and heart-opening; it demands reflection as you read it and stays with you after you're finished. Above all, it's shot through with tender mercy. Paul Heppell's illustrations only serve to enhance the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

auscaz's review

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Drug abuse

becandthebooks's review against another edition

3.0

 This is my first foray into Trent Dalton’s world, and as much as I did enjoy his writing style I did come across some things that made it difficult for me to take it seriously.

I thought it was a great exploration into how less fortunate people live and why perhaps they ended up there. The book definitely didn’t shy away from some of the unpleasant details. There was a lot of sadness, heartache and anger for many different reasons within the homeless community Trent Dalton described and I can definitely see all of these points of view.

The main thing I didn’t gel with was the cliché fairytale elements: Prince Charming falls in love at first sight and sweeps unknown girl off her feet, said girl (who is, of course, a peasant girl) runs away, he then spends the rest of the story searching for her until he does, just upon chance, find her and once again sweeps her off her feet with a manly and heroic gesture. It was just so unrealistic. I loved the part about him sketching her and her not being as invisible as she thought, but the prince bit…. Taken too far for me.

I also found the very climactic Hollywood action movie conclusion to the drug lord situation very quixotic. I understand that stuff like this can happen, but once again I personally felt like it was taken way too far (that was a lot of deaths in a short period of time and all so different).

The essence of the story I enjoyed, but it could have been edited down into a more moving and realistic version. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Alcohol