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the_great_katsby's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Death of parent
marfer20's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Despite the fact that I haven’t mainlined a book in ages like I did this, it doesn’t quite make it to 5 full stars for me. Maybe it’s the grown up Fault in Our Stars of it all. Maybe it all felt too rushed (although maybe that was the point!). Still, beautifully written and overall a great read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer
Minor: Child death, Car accident, and Death of parent
ellenwm's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Julia Whelan is so dang talented!!! Her writing alternates between hilariously relatable to lyrical, profound philosophies on life. A beautiful story of love, grief and found family. Oxford is a beautifully rendered setting and sort of becomes its own character, or at least a muse. I also loved how each chapter started with a snippet of verse or prose from an author that relates to the contents and the characters’ academic pursuits. Best usage I’ve seen for that technique. Be on notice, this one isn’t really a rom com, it’s a story that brings in much more of life’s ups and downs. The result is dimensional characters whose lives are much more than window dressing for their romantic pursuits. Listening to the audiobook narrated by the author was a treat! (Just like with her excellent second novel “Thank you for listening.”)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Car accident and Classism
leesahbee's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This was a good book, but I did a *lot* more crying in this book than I expected to going into what looked like a fun British romcom.
What I loved:
All the poetry references and literature academia vibes were great — I liked that aspect of the book a lot.
What I feel conflicted about :
- a family dealing with their son slowly but surely dying of cancer is absolutely a central theme of this book. This character is the male romantic lead so that’s also a central part of the romantic relationship. Not a fun, light romp. I didn’t know this going in.
- I actually don’t feel like I ever got terribly invested in their relationship.
What was done really well:
The pacing of how to fast-forward through big sections of time and tell the story of what went on during that time was done really well.
- I appreciated how the book ended. For all that Jamie’s still dying, it still felt like a happy, hopeful ending, which is impressive.
- this book genuinely made me think a lot about the different emotional ways to experience and work through dying and losing loved ones. Hence all the crying, but it was a more thought-inspiring book than I expected.
What I loved:
All the poetry references and literature academia vibes were great — I liked that aspect of the book a lot.
What I feel conflicted about :
- a family dealing with their son slowly but surely dying of cancer is absolutely a central theme of this book. This character is the male romantic lead so that’s also a central part of the romantic relationship. Not a fun, light romp. I didn’t know this going in.
- I actually don’t feel like I ever got terribly invested in their relationship.
What was done really well:
The pacing of how to fast-forward through big sections of time and tell the story of what went on during that time was done really well.
- I appreciated how the book ended. For all that Jamie’s still dying, it still felt like a happy, hopeful ending, which is impressive.
- this book genuinely made me think a lot about the different emotional ways to experience and work through dying and losing loved ones. Hence all the crying, but it was a more thought-inspiring book than I expected.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent