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michaelion'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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Confinement, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Colonisation
Minor: Misogyny and Vomit
the_kristin_amber'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? Yes
5.0
Tragic the whole way through
Kept me up late -- a page turner
Moderate: Infertility and Miscarriage
Minor: Cancer
ellenszostak's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy
jodar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
And yet… I found some of the plot a little too tidy in places, a bit too melodramatic. And at times the characters felt almost stereotypical and uncomplicated; the feeling that “this is exactly how this dramatis persona would think, speak and act ”.
Further, the male MC holds some grim, cynical philosophical attitudes to life:
A life had come and gone and nature had not paused a second for it. The machine of time and space grinds on, and people are fed through it like grist through the mill. (Chapter 10)
Years bleach away the sense of things until all that’s left is a bone-white past, stripped of feeling and significance. (Chapter 37)
Soon enough the days will close over their lives, the grass will grow over their graves, until their story is just an unvisited headstone. (Chapter 37)
And the authorial voice, too, comments of the society:
History is that which is agreed upon by mutual consent.
That is how life goes on – protected by the silence that anaesthetises shame. (Chapter 17)
So yes, it is a story of love and grief and of love reclaimed despite the loss and tragedy, but in the end it feels to me to be a story of ultimate despair.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and War
Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
sudsysbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, and War
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
tinkerbell01's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Grief
benjamintoad's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Grief
connortal's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Infertility and War
Minor: Xenophobia
jollymama's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, and War
honeyenbee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Grief, and War
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Vomit