Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

1177 reviews

ggossett2's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

gracerice's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Animal death

Minor: Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

nquinlan's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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

A well paced and well written book, like a warm hug.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Abandonment and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, and Stalking

saliwali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Bullying, Drug use, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

I made it 30 minutes into this book last spring and stopped because, trigger warning,

it starts with suicide because someone is losing everything and I was afraid it would push me over the edge.

But the last category on my 2023 reading challenge is "a book you started but didn't finish," So I gave it a another shot this week. I wish so much that I had made it to minute 36 last spring, which is oddly the whole point of this unbelievably beautiful and hopeful book. Spoiler alert: she thrives.

ash_bees's review against another edition

reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

"Where there are books, there is always a temptation to open them."

Reminiscent of the movie "It's A Wonderful Life," except instead of only experiencing one alternative, the protagonist experiences many.  It does get a bit preachy, but so did "It's A Wonderful Life."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Vomit, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

lottebluebird's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

Ein Buch das das Leben bejaht, auf eine unkonventionelle Weise. Sehr zu empfehlen!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Car accident, Death, and Self harm

_mariah_'s review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

thimi_time's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

This is such a poignant book! The themes explored are explored in such a way that is just…beautiful. And the underlying message is so inspiring. Though this isn’t exactly my style of book, I didn’t have the moment of “oh, I love this book”, it was an amazing read, and I will definitely be recommending it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Self harm, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Minor: Car accident, Drug use, Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, and Infidelity

bree_of_the_woods's review against another edition

mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Drug use

sparrowhearted's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

Have not read a book this fast in a while. Did not take notes while reading so I'm not sure about details I liked or did not like, but I don't feel like it really hit that arbitrary four-star rating to me.
Would recommend it if I know the person I'm recommending it to would already be interested in that sort of story, but I'm not sure I'd claim it's a must-read in general.
 
- Protagonist Nora's experiences do shape her in relatively believable ways for most of the part since they work with what's already present in her, rather than provoke a complete 180. Her development sometimes feels a little heavy-handed, but never downright forced. This might be a personal problem but I'm still not sure, however, if by the end of the story I had a proper sense for who Nora is? 
A lot of her personality traits felt relatable but in a way she read a bit like a horoscope, hitting a lot of points that felt like she was developed in a way that was supposed to make her relatable to the widest audience possible. The fact that we never witness much of the alternate Noras' personalities only made that more glaring to me.

- The book is fairly fast-paced once you get into the eponymous Midnight Library and my short attention span appreciated that, but it also meant that a lot of things were shown on a surface level.

-The more I think about it, the more I think my biggest gripe is how the fast pace takes some of the impact of its story? In many cases I didn't feel like I stayed long enough with the events to feel much more than what the book was telling me to, and I'm not sure I liked that.

- The cast is, from what I can tell, largely white but there is some diversity in regards to social backgrounds and sexuality. That being said, none of these marginalized identities are examined much and as such, it feels like all of these factors are more passing matters rather than important aspects of the characters and story.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Will not comment on original's writing style, since I read a translation and don't have anything to compare it to. The translation had a good flow, felt natural and wasn't complicated to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism and Emotional abuse