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tinkeringcheck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
To be upfront, I've never actually read a Jane Austen book, though I have really enjoyed some Austen screen adaptations.
But, despite all that, what I'd absorbed through cultural osmosis was enough to easily follow along. There were a few times when the characters got into discussions that made me feel like I'd shown up to an English Lit seminar without doing the reading, but these parts were still written in a pretty accessible way for newbies while digging deep into the themes of Austen's stories.
Now, there are a lot of character storylines here and I admittedly had my favourites, but overall I found each brought something unique to the story and how we see the other characters. This cast has a lot of heart, even if some POVs tended to slow down the story more than others. Because of the large cast and limited time with each, however, you don't get a completely deep exploration of any one character. This can be a relief if there are POVs you don't click with, but left me a little wanting for my faves (like Adeline and Dr. Grey).
At the heart of the story, though, is a very poignant and relatable exploration of many different kinds of grief. While the WW2 setting has been overdone to death, it truly makes sense for this story for the unfathomable amount of grief it inflicted on society. Even so, this story is rooted firmly on the home front, so it feels much less a typical WW2 historical and more a story that just happens to be set during WW2.
Overall, this is a character-driven story with a lot of heart. I really loved this story and these characters, and it made me a lot more interested in Austen's works! It has a slow pace though (the audiobook even moreso than the print book despite the excellent narration) and the characters - not the Austen plot - are definitely the focus. The ending felt a bit underwhelming too, with some characters making some kind of... regressive choices after seeing them grow so much over the course of the story.
Graphic: Grief, Miscarriage, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Mental illness, War, and Addiction
Minor: Suicide, Emotional abuse, and Sexism
Graphic sexual assault: Happens inGrief: It's a major part of the story, so if background deaths of parents/children/siblings or miscarriage will affect you it's probably best to skip this one.
Addiction: One of the characters starts struggling with a prescription drug addiction about halfway through the story. It's only lightly touched on and briefly described. They eventually take steps to help curb it, but they don't really get help for it (especially in terms of modern support).
Mental illness: One of the characters struggles with symptoms very strongly like depression and agoraphobia, and heavily isolates themselves because of it.
Suicide: Very brief mention of a character's relative sadly committing suicide in the past.
Emotional abuse: Nothing explicit, more one of the characters having a shitty parent.
mysterymom40's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Pregnancy, Death, Sexism, Addiction, Gaslighting, Child death, and Grief
Minor: War