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mrsjoellebell'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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Outing
leontyna's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I liked how reflective the book was. The focus on the people and their relationships was the right call for a book with this theme. One might argue that not much happened or that there wasn't enough description of how it affected the world but I feel like the book struck the right balance between personal story and showing political implications.
Overall I was really invested in the characters' fates and I will think about this books for a long time for sure.
Overall I was really invested in the characters' fates and I will think about this books for a long time for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Minor: Bullying, Gun violence, and Outing
meganemarshall's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
Be prepared to cry... alot. I bawled my eyes out multiple times while reading. I was gripped in the beginning. This is NOT a sci-fi book!! It isn't about the boxes but about how people react to them. Not only do you read about 8 people whose lives are intertwined, but how the world as a whole deals with the strings. What would you do if you had a short string or a long string? How do people view you if they know the length of your string? Will people discriminate based on string length?
The book is very character-driven well. Erlick did an incredible job at making me emotionally connect to all these characters even though I knew the lengths of their strings, so I knew who had happy endings and sad endings. I also really loved how everyone was connected somehow. A person from Hank's story pops up in other people's stories, and vice versa.
There's a lot of deep conversation in the book about how to live your life, as while as discussions of hope, mortality, faith, discrimination, love, marriage, etc. I think the book showed that all life has meaning, that no matter what you do during your life or how you die or what happens afterwards, you still touch all the people around you, and your live affects their choices which moves others, etc. Hank's storyline really shows this and was my favorite.
The book is very character-driven well. Erlick did an incredible job at making me emotionally connect to all these characters even though I knew the lengths of their strings, so I knew who had happy endings and sad endings. I also really loved how everyone was connected somehow. A person from Hank's story pops up in other people's stories, and vice versa.
There's a lot of deep conversation in the book about how to live your life, as while as discussions of hope, mortality, faith, discrimination, love, marriage, etc. I think the book showed that all life has meaning, that no matter what you do during your life or how you die or what happens afterwards, you still touch all the people around you, and your live affects their choices which moves others, etc. Hank's storyline really shows this and was my favorite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Mass/school shootings
Moderate: Gun violence and Suicide
Minor: Car accident and Outing
stijlwaters's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and Outing
nightstitch96's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Suicide, Car accident, and Outing
csyip's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Bullying and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Suicide, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Outing
ivi_reads_books'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.75
The book talks about what makes a life worth living, the level of pain you are willing to endure for the sake of yourself and others. It discusses discrimination, change and solidarity in light of the new information that the mysterious strings that showed up on everyone's doorstep brought up.
I enjoyed every charachter and storyline. They showed the individual struggles but also had a connection to the bigger picture.
Julia Whelan is a great audio book narrator!
I enjoyed every charachter and storyline. They showed the individual struggles but also had a connection to the bigger picture.
Julia Whelan is a great audio book narrator!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Outing, and War
Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
housleysc's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The premise of the book is fascinating and thought-provoking. It kept my attention very easily. Each character had a distinct voice, which made the narration easy to follow. The downsides to this book for me are:
- Death is a main character. I had a nightmare about two loved ones dying when I neared the end of the book. Clearly the book affected me on a subconscious level. The premise is pretty heavy.
- The characters are distinct, but I don’t feel like there was much arc to them. The characters who did change did so very predictably.
- It felt a little heavy-handed at times, like the author didn’t trust the reader to form a humane opinion or to remember an important detail. (I predicted a plot point early on because the author kept bringing the same bit of info up every time a certain character’s story rolled around.)
- It all wrapped up too neatly for my taste. It would’ve gotten a 4.0 from me if it weren’t for this one…
All in all, it was an engaging read and a really good thought experiment. I appreciated the overall message of quality over quantity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, and Outing
lazstearns's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
2.75
The Measure begins with an interesting concept: One day, everyone over the age of 21 receives a box containing a string, its length indicating the length of your life. The book itself takes on many of the issues that have always plagued society—racism, discrimination, anti-LGBT, etc—and frames them in a new context.
However, the story itself gets bogged down by too many perspectives and too many heavy handed attempts at the same message. We get it. Whether your string is long or short, you should live every day like it’s your last. Ultimately the story drags too long as Erlick tries to weave each narrator together.
However, the story itself gets bogged down by too many perspectives and too many heavy handed attempts at the same message. We get it. Whether your string is long or short, you should live every day like it’s your last. Ultimately the story drags too long as Erlick tries to weave each narrator together.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mass/school shootings, and Classism
Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Outing
mj_86's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Grief
Moderate: Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Suicide, Car accident, and Outing