Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Bridge

I was really intrigued by the concept and also think this is a great message and can give a lot to different people struggling with this topic.

My 2.5 Stars are my personal enjoyment and opinion. This really wasn’t for me.
At the beginning I was really into it. But the further I read, the more frustrated and bored I got. Don’t get me wrong there certainly were emotional and impactful scenes but I found myself not being emotionally invested in the characters overall at all.
I often had the feeling, that I only saw the author wanting to make it emotionally impactful.

It took me ages to finish it. After the halfway point we didn’t really get anything new. All the realizations we’ve already been through, and the thing I was interested in ist seeing the surroundings (which we got in Part 3 and I liked the most) but the truths the characters learned were repetitive? The writing wasn’t my taste at all but has nothing to do with the book generally. I would have loved to see the impact on family and friends with such a topic. Or more like: what does their life look like in coming years (in all parts! Not just part 3). A few parts felt very ‚look-how-sad-your-family-will-be‘ what a lot of people in those situations get to hear often and it rarely helps that person.

I really tried to connect to the characters. But I couldn’t.

All in all a solid YA Novel that I see being helpful to a certain audience.

Please reach out in ways you are able to if you are in this or similar situations! Talk to loved ones and find things as small or big as you want to help you get through this. You will!

Content Warnings

jmross10's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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

4.0

The Bridge follows Tillie and Aaron, two teenagers who cross paths while contemplating suicide on the George Washington Bridge. It explores the various possibilities of what happens if one, both, or neither of them follow through.

While it is about a very sad topic, I feel that Konigsberg DID NOT write with the singular intent of making people cry, thus blinding them to the bigger story. He wrote about the grief, struggles, catalysts, and potential outcomes with honesty. Explored the various different types of familial and “friend” responses, and (arguably the saddest part for me), people who had never crossed paths with the MCs and who’s lives were altered because of it.

I thought it was well written and I didn’t mind the alternate versions of the story. Parts of it were repetitive but not in an annoying way. I appreciate that the various outcomes weren’t completely different and also that everyone wasn’t suddenly okay because that is definitely not true.

I’ve read Konigsberg before and really enjoyed his work and I look forward to reading more in the future.

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parchmentpages92's review

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emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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rayne_1906's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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

3.5

6 hours 39 minutes - This is a very interesting book. I have never seen anything quite like this so definitely points for originality. So often people go about their daily lives and never stop to think about all the other paths they could have taken. This book did not only speculate, but contained four different stories of four different outcomes. And this book was heart-breaking, and you really did feel for the characters. However, the format of having four stories rolled into one led to feelings of repetition, and sometimes confusion. Did this event happen in this story or a previous one? for example. At times the characters did seem slightly exaggerated and bordering on annoying, but in a way I can see that being an intentional choice; its more realistic for characters portraying serious mental illness to not come across to the reader's in a perfectly likeable manner. I really didn't like the way the third story was told. I found it confusing and convoluted, and most of it seemed like the author info dumping ideas he had but couldn't quite work into the main plot. It would have been a more reflective choice to keep that section as short as possible. However, overall, a very good story.

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n_sp's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

As a person who has dealt with similar thoughts, I think this book was extremely well-written. I read it all in a day (even though I have exams coming up)! The characters have a such real, relatable relationships with the people around them, and I found it really interesting that the book didn't have a particular romantic subplot. It is truly inspiring and hope-giving.

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nelsvy's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-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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