Reviews with content warning for Grief - Fiona and Jane

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

23 reviews

collie98's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-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

3.0

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

"𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 - 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 - 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑. 𝒘𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒘𝒆?"

This book of short stories chronicles the lives and friendship of Fiona and Jane, two Tawainese women who grew up together and are now trying to find themselves out in the world. They navigate their friendship, relationships, sexuality and family dynamics along the way.

I don't usually have a great relationship with books of short stories, but I liked this one. I think that the stories actually being related and tying into one another really helped. The first story, right off the bat, broke my heart, and I was both scared and excited to read the rest. The stories were all very engaging, but my favorite was "Cold Turkey," which occurs around the halfway mark. I also liked that the side characters who fleshed out the worlds of Fiona & Jane felt complete and real, for better and for worse.

The only reason why this didn't end up getting rated higher for me was - for it being a book about friendship, I didn't see a whole lot of....well, friendship. Fiona & Jane are supposed to be best friends, but in some stories, they don't interact at all or seldom mention each other. When they do. have scenes together, you can tell that there is love there, but it doesn't feel like they should even still be friends - the chemistry wasn't really there for me. However, overall, I did enjoy this read!

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stevie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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sydneybedell's review against another edition

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emotional 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

4.0

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krys_kilz's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

4.0

I loved reading a book dedicated to platonic love and friendship. As one reviewer put it, it felt "subtly subversive" within a dominant culture steeped in romantic love. The ebbs and flows of Fiona and Jane's friendship as they moved apart, grew increasingly distant and changed resonated deeply with my own experiences with long-term friendships. The unspeakable grief of losing the closeness and proximity you had as children and teenagers and the unbearable loneliness of being left behind. The raw emotion captured between these pages broke my heart and healed it simultaneously.

I also thought the story lines unpacking Jane and Fiona's relationships with their parents were really strong. Fiona as her mother's "own heart, walking outside her body" and Jane trying to save Julian in an attempt to save her father - the complexity and messiness were translated beautifully.

My favorite stories in the collection were: Cold Turkey, Clairvoyance, and the title story Fiona and Jane.

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camillatd's review against another edition

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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

3.0

I really wanted to love this book. I was intrigued by the structure of interconnected short stories focusing on two characters over the course of decades, but it just didn't quite deliver for me. The narrative was too sparse for me to get to know the characters as well as I wanted to, which meant I wasn't as invested in their story. The narrative voice was also somewhat confusing--Jane's chapters are written in the first person, but Fiona's in the third. The story itself was compelling, and the writing was beautiful and evocative, but I just didn't love this book.

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