Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Lola in the Mirror

Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

25 reviews

livdom's review

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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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matildaesandell's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

Wow Trent Dalton does it again, I really loved this book. Not only was it a story, but it was also really informative and opened my mind more to the homeless experience. This isn’t my usual genre, but this book definitely pulled me out of a book slump. Some things I loved:
•Trent Dalton was brutal with what he did to your heart
•There’s a part of the book that compares a rich mindset to a homeless mindset regarding the Olympics in Brisbane.
•I love books set where I live, I feel like I could now go do a tour!
•The illustrations and art gallery bits at the start of every chapter, so creative and fun. Loved
•The passage at the end about the man on Adelaide street in the brown hat 🥹 (IYKYK)
•This book is heavy, but the end of it left on the best note and I feel all warm and fuzzy!

I think I maybe struggled a bit from time to time simply because it’s a lit fic book. The writing and the story was truly a beautiful and wonderful experience.

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nanirump's review against another edition

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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? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A beautiful and touching story that puts you in the shoes of a homeless young person like never before. As are all of Trent Dalton's books, it is fantastical, with so much heart, love for difficult-to-love characters, and magical realism. I really enjoyed the aspect of art in this and it kept me guessing and broke my heart bit by bit, but entrenched in there as always, is hope.

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flambingo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-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? Yes

3.5

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becandthebooks's review against another edition

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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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kiri_crossland's review

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dark mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

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melissa_muses's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I’d give this 10 stars if I could. Trent Dalton has once again occupied a piece of my brain and heart with his words in this tale of a girl with no name. Making me look at the city I love with awe, horror, curiosity, admiration, sadness and fondness, he vividly describes my river city, tells a dark, gritty tale and name drops every company I ever worked for. I loved this and stayed up way too late for “just one more chapter” each night. Can’t fault it.

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