Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Memorial by Bryan Washington

71 reviews

joensign's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Sexual content

kappafrog's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

This book just didn't do it for me. Even though the book is written in first person, something about its style made me feel disconnected from the characters, especially Benson and Mitsuko. I almost gave up in Benson's portion because I found Benson such a blah character and the relationship that drove the novel seemed to have nothing going for it. Once we switched to Mike's perspective though, things picked up. I was surprised to find Mike such a sympathetic character after my apathy towards both him and Benson in the first section. Even Benson became more likeable from Mike's perspective some of the time (though at other times he was really awful).

Unusually for a book, the final section was definitely the best. So often authors lose steam at that point, but here I thought that Washington got me to care way more than I had about Benson and his father, while still keeping up the emotional momentum on Mike. Before the final section, I had spent most of my time reading resigned to finishing but with no enthusiasm for the book or its characters. The end brought together a lot of the threads of the book. Even though the ending is

open-ended, I still felt satisfied with it.

I have some other issues with the book though. A lot of the characters don't feel like real people in the way they talked - particularly the women, Ximena, Lydia and Mitsuko. They dispensed cryptic wisdom or made pithy remarks but never felt like real people. What I've seen described as the book's "staccato" pace meant that there were way too many emotional punchlines. So many passages tried to be profound in an understated way that I just got bored.

And finally, I don't think that Eiju's domestic abuse of Mitsuko was reckoned with enough (or for that matter, Mike and Benson's domestic abuse of each other). But it felt especially annoying in such a male-focused book that so much of the book's emotional core is about a reconciliation between a boy and the father who beat his mother, in which said father never once apologizes for that abuse, and a twist is made to make us think for a second that Mitsuko was the bad guy all along. The book's best emotional bits were about Eiju and Mike, but I never felt like Mitsuko got her emotional due even though the book ended with a focus on her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

hello_lovely13'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Racial slurs

HIV

daniellekat's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.75

Fantastic writing, but overall this wasn't for me. The characters were unlikeable and this was the type of "love story" I hate. I did enjoy the theme of grief in dealing with broken and aging families, and I thought the writing choices between Benson's and Mike's POV were perfect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Racism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

sadhbhprice's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Abandonment

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

maybeimali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

Benson saved it. Mike ruined it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

msteasam's review against another edition

4.0

Had to try this a couple of times to get into it. It's a really great study of relationships - platonic, romantic, and familial.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent

Moderate: Domestic abuse

stellahadz's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

This book started out slow for me, but it did start to pick up in the middle, during the chapters from Mike's POV. Although I wish the author had done a little more with the interesting premise of the book and explored the characters a bit more in-depth, it was an enjoyable read. Washington does a great job of capturing the bittersweet feeling that comes with knowing that a relationship is about to end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism and Homophobia

emilysamsharrisreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.25

This novel felt almost poetic in its writing style, it is gorgeous. Memorial presented such the two main characters, queer men of colour in Texac, Mike and Benson as whole, flawed, loving, challenging characters grappling with grief, family separation (both in physical distance and emotional connection), and what to do when a relationship runs its course. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism