kwestlovee's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Death
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
This book is so beautifully written. It is a story of salvation and redemption. A story of true love and saving grace. Tallie and Bridge are complex, beautiful characters who have both endured tragedies and help one another learn to live with those hurts. The end was beautiful although the outcomes were not what I had hoped in some ways. I loved that this book is set in my hometown. I will read anything else this author puts on paper.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Suicide, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Infertility, and Panic attacks/disorders
phippsmr's review
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Child death, Death, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Racial slurs, and Injury/Injury detail
menomica's review against another edition
This book is really interesting and I was so invested and really wanted to get to know more about Emmet but oh my fucking god why the fuck are him and Tallie boinking??? In what way does that seem appropriate??? It just totally ruins everything. The book would’ve been so much more enjoyable if they were just friends. You don’t need to fuck just because you’re two hot straight people!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, and Death
Minor: Infertility and Sexual content
aimeegarnier's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Mental illness, Infidelity, Grief, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, and Death
venetiana's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This started out really interesting, then became flat, then some plot twists, and a really bad solution.
The ending was absolutely not satisfying - not for the most obvious reason (I can definitely respect and appreciate that), but because it really didn't fit the rest of the plot. The story simply gets interrupted and yanked back into "real life", I guess.
I wanted to like this book so much and now I'm just sad and disappointed, like I've fallen for a ruse.
The ending was absolutely not satisfying - not for the most obvious reason (I can definitely respect and appreciate that), but because it really didn't fit the rest of the plot. The story simply gets interrupted and yanked back into "real life", I guess.
I wanted to like this book so much and now I'm just sad and disappointed, like I've fallen for a ruse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
Moderate: Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement
Minor: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Infertility, Drug use, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, and Vomit
lexie_simons's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racism, Mental illness, and Infertility
dpearson5257's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I really really enjoyed this story. So many feelings over the span of a weekend, I thought one thing and then towards the end of the weekend we get a twist and it was just a complete page turner. I loved getting to know the complexities of each character. I thought it was interesting the internal thoughts of Emmett in his chapters and you maybe thinking one thing but later you find out why he has these internal thoughts to himself. And then the grief aspect happened and I just felt it all. I cried. I cried curled up in a blanket and rooted for everyone in this story. I totally recommend this book and will probably reread this in the fall and fall in love with the journey of the weekend all over again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt and Grief
remie's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Infertility
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.0
This is my second read from Cross-Smith. A few years ago I read, and unexpectedly really loved, Whiskey & Ribbons. It was an end of the year book for me then too and was a last minute addition to my "favorites of the year" 2018 list. Since then, I've meant to read the short story collection she's published, but I am not always in the mood for short stories, so I haven't gotten to it yet. However, when I saw that she had another novel coming out, this one, I was psyched and knew I'd be reading it sooner rather than later.
Driving home from work one evening, Tallie (a therapist), sees and stops Emmett from taking an action that would end his life. Over the course of the weekend that follows, Tallie and Emmett spend days together, sharing lots of "big talk" and inevitably becoming deeply tangled in each other's lives, yet purposefully holding each other at arm's length because they are, essentially, strangers. Emmett meets Tallie's family and leaves a lasting mark on them, while simultaneously enacting a ruse that will break her budding trust in him. Tallie does everything she can to help Emmett see that his life has meaning, if worth living, while hiding an essential fact about herself that will threaten his belief in her motives. And in back-and-forth-in-time perspectives, the reader is also given the unfolding events that led to Emmett's decision to end his life and the difficult realities Tallie has yet to fully reckon with in her own life.
Although this novel was so different, in so many ways, from Whiskey & Ribbons, there was a style and feeling to the writing that rang very similar. It seems that the sort of soft, gentle cadence to the words and the way the story unfolds, is a central characteristic of Cross-Smith's writing. Interestingly, although the art forms were differently used and experienced, the place that art itself holds in the lives of the characters and the emotional connections shared/created is another similarity between the two. Something about the way it's woven in just adds to the smooth, comforting flow of the writing; it sort of all just washes over you as a reader, bringing you along for an immersive ride. And despite the intensity of many of the events that occur within these pages, it was still a deeply soothing reading experience. A really impressive accomplishment and, as it's the second time, really proves that it's no fluke, that Cross-Smith is just that good.
There is one other literary detail worth mentioning, an internal stylistic device. Emmett's observations, or cataloging, of the details around him, as well as Tallie's mental therapy notes, are a really nice touch that gives something extra to the characters and, while it could easily be overdone, never felt that way for me. They both give an almost haunting quality to Emmett and Tallie's inner personhood throughout their time together and it adds something simple, but necessary, to their development.
Regarding the actual story, it was, as I said, quite intense. Really shouldn't be a surprise, considering the way Emmett and Tallie meet, but it ends up being so much more than that. Despite the lies (or truth-guarding, if you will) that they tell each other, the intentional miscommunications and misdirections and invasions of privacy (that aspect in itself was such a human part of the story, I couldn't get over the absolute real feeling of it), there is something impossibly tender in the way Emmett and Tallie are with each other. It is deeply affecting and had me emotionally invested in them together almost immediately. And while there is definitely a romantic tension to their character development in and around each other, that's too surface-level to appropriately describe it. So when there was follow through there, but then also not, that weird mix of completeness and dissatisfaction was exactly what I wanted from it.
Other than that, looking at the "side character" details, the integration of Tallie's extended family and ex-husband, as well as her yearning for a child, juxtaposed with Emmett's mysteriously absent family and, of course, the mystery of the "why" behind his suicide attempt, into this emotion-laden long weekend, were equally striking as facets of the Emmet and Tallie's story. (A note here, the suicide attempt, planning, ideation, bargaining/planning, is central to the novel and has a quiet intensity to it that hits all the harder because of it, deserving full-throated content warnings.)
It's the small things, the artistic touches, that make Cross-Smith's writing so good. I was just so softly blown away by this novel. The tender writing and story of Emmett and Tallie, ships passing in the night while leaving indelible marks on each other's lives/futures, was so emotionally raw and epicly poignant.
“Losing her nervousness made her feel reckless, and feeling reckless fed her recklessness, leading her to feel the scariest, most thrilling thing of all: free.”
“He could pretend to be someone else who was pretending to be someone else. The cracked husk of his heart inside another and another, ad infinitum. Evidence of how he’d closed himself off out of necessity. Grief. Guilt. And fear.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury