Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

105 reviews

katewhite77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

As Beautiful As It Is Heartbreaking.

One lunchtime whilst working in a school, Miss Betty sidles up to Mr Chetan to become her lodger, and a beautiful dacades long begins. They 
try did try being lovers for a time, and whilst that didn't work out too well, the friendship only deepened. 

Chetan helps raise Solo, Miss Betty's son, for many years. That is until, one day, Solo over hears something that completely changes the course of their lives. This novel spans continents, and the decades just melt into each other. We go from baking hot Trinidadian summers to freezing cold winters in New York. Love  conquers all undoubtedly, but the question remains at what  cost.

Not an easy read by any means, trigger warnings everywhere, but I have no doubt that this will trouble my top books of the year list and has further cemented my  love of Caribbean literature.

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rae477's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.25

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beccamead's review against another edition

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A bit triggering with the sh. 
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danajoy's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

An intriguing exploration of love, familial, platonic and romantic. A stiring, heartbreaking and moving story. 
I loved the strong friendship and respect between Miss Betty and Mr Chetan. 
The self harm element in the latter section was some of the most confronting that I've read. 
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giuseppinah's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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booksandbabble's review against another edition

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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

3.75

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jimio's review against another edition

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

4.25

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dpearson5257's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was such a beautiful story, I love the complexities of love and what a family can look like. This does have heeaavvyyyyy triggers so read with care. This is a multi POV story and at times I found it difficult to separate the voices and where we were in time, if it was present or a flashback moment.

⚠️- repeated self harm (some explicit scenes), homophobia and slurs, murder
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sakisreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-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

Oh, Love After Love 🥹 What a superb story! 

There is a definite undercurrent of sadness in everyone’s stories; Betty’s, Mr. Chetan’s, Solo’s… The content warnings will be included for each of them below.

But this book also highlights the beauties of love in its many different forms; not just romantic, but familial and in friendship too ❤️ I was so touched by Betty and Mr. Chetan’s decades-long friendship. When you find a gem of a friend like that, keep them close 🙋🏻‍♀️ 
I couldn’t rewrite a story but if I could, I WOULD HAVE PROTECTED MR. CHETAN AT ALL COSTS AND NEVER LET HIM DIE 😫

Truly a phenomenal set of stories, written in patois. I need more books like this in my life 🥰 5 out of 5 stars for me, thank you 🏳️‍🌈✨
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sgrizzle's review

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

My rating doesn’t reflect the quality, just my personal experience reading. It was hard to follow at first because of the formatting and colloquial writing style, but I did get into a rhythm with it. Ultimately it was just so dang sad, and while there was a glimpse of hope at the end, it was so so sad, and right now everything is sad and so it was rough.
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