Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

14 reviews

bellsdixon's review

emotional funny hopeful sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, and Pregnancy

csyip's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

vanesst's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, and Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia and Religious bigotry

hhagerty16's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

vanessatombolini's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Medical content, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

tiredfangirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I was so torn about how to star rate this book. The themes were incredibly well developed looking back from the end, but I think as I was reading it felt like a lot of stuff was going nowhere. 

In terms of the characterization, I didn’t like any of the characters for about the first half of the book. I get that it was building towards the larger themes, but it meant that I wasn’t really enjoying reading it. I also really felt like for a book with such complex characters otherwise, Julia and Rose got very one-note characterizations.

I’m more forgiving of Charlie’s 2-note characterization because I think it makes a point about how we idealize people after death, but I wish she had DONE something with that.

Despite all that, I couldn’t seem to put it down. So… 4/5 I guess? But definitely 5/5 at times and 2/5 at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh lord. How do I describe this book? When I read it was like a Little Women retelling I was a tad scared because I didn't know what to expect. Let me tell you to expect to laugh, cry, and smile at this beautiful book. I was skeptical about the first few chapters but then Napolitano throws you a curve ball and ramps the pace right up! The characters are complex and beautifully developed, the story manages to be funny, sad, and reflective of family and love all at the same time. The end is beautiful and unexpected (I cried for like 80 pages no joke!) but perfectly closes out the book and all loose ends. I wish I could read this again for the first time because i'd appreciate it more! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

With the possible exception of The Color Purple, this book has the best opening line I've ever read. The crafting of this story is excellent throughout. I loved William's character and story arc, even when the choices he made were infuriating, and found each of the Padavano sisters to be compelling, three-dimensional characters.  There were characters I wanted more of at the beginning and the end of the story, particularly Charlie and Alice, although I recognise this would have made for a very long book. I don't think this is a story with main characters, and trying to shoehorn Julia/Sylvie/William into this role at various times meant the world as a whole lost something for me.

For some reason, despite being technically excellent and enjoying reading it while it was in front of me, the story took me a long time to wade through. I appreciated that the plot moved quite quickly, as otherwise I feel it could have fallen into bleak and melancholic territory. I was also irritated by the death at the end of the story, but I can't work out if it was actually just thrown in as a plot device or if I just liked the character who dies a lot. There were also some subplots that were introduced and then never seemed to go anywhere or get mentioned again. 

Overall I would recommend this book as a compelling and moving set of character studies, but I wouldn't say it bears much resemblance to what the blurb and marketing suggests. This is not really a story about romantic love, but about the choices we make when there are no good choices in all kinds of relationships.

I'm excited to read Little Women next and see how many parallels there are between the two books, as other people have said!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

meghan_thee_scallion's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.5

A beautifully expansive novel about family, grief, and mistakes. It took a little bit for me to get into this one, but once it grabbed me, I was fully in it. 

I saw myself in the characters of Sylvie and William and the way the author writes about their family. Highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Religious bigotry