Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - All This Could Be Different

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

40 reviews

alyal's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense 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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brotestantethic's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

This is an interesting one! This reads as an honest and mostly realistic look into anticapitalist 20-somethings living in the big city. Main character Sneha also struggles with the divide between her cultural and sexual identifies, as well as financial pressures. I though the deep dive into her culture was by far the best and most compelling part of this book. Matthews writes a blunt and telling narrative.

What I was surprised by here was what is not present. I truly expected Sneha to have a gender revelation. During sex scenes,

she is aroused by pretending to have a penis.

As a result, Sneha’s adventure with gender feels unfinished by the end of the novel. I do appreciate that she changes her views on trans people (originally not accepting of they/them pronouns). However, her character development is further unfinished because she does not reconcile with her fatphobia and colorism.

Furthermore, I found Project Pink House/Rion a bit hard to swallow. I believe Matthews was going for a microcosm of anticapitalist, communal living. It is a utopia of “doing what you can.” However, it ends up being and reading like college houses. A bit young, a bit unrealistic, a lot of conflict. I didn’t really like how this fit into the narrative and maybe could be chalked up to the author trying to cover a bit too much ground.

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jillaay_h's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

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hello_lovely13's review

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emotional 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

2.5

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charlie_woodchipper's review

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emotional hopeful 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

3.5

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carenlou's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-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

4.0

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archiveofrasa's review against another edition

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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

4.75

started this because I loved the voice, stayed because of the outstanding character work. Sneha is such an interesting and well realised character, as are all the other characters, Tig, Thom, Marina, Amit. even the more minor characters add a lot of realistic depth to what the book is trying to explore.

I didn't realise until I was days deep into my annotating reread that the story is exactly what Sneha says it is in the beginning:

This is not a story about work or precarity. I am trying, late in the evening, to say something about love, which for many of us is not separable from the other shit.
—A1

when you read said story and the words and symbolism click into place, it's deeply satisfying. the book isn't trying to explore how Sneha directly navigates the capitalistic society of 2013-beyond, that aspect simply falls back as a foundation, as the unmovable constant in her life that continues to push her down. ATCBD is about Sneha as a person, her issues with intimacy, community, family, identity. the way Mathews going about exploring these facets intertwined with work life, as adult life must endure these days, was super compelling and so new.

while Sneha was absolutely a pain in the ass, all we gathered from her before she hurts others makes me want to know how things end for her, what other choices she makes and why she makes them. I've stopped looking for likeable main characters and instead found myself gravitating towards those who do fuck up, have problematic issues as to why they fuck up, those who have to learn things the hard way, especially if those people are queer people of colour. these stories awaken a sense of realism I definitely needed and even if it has only subtly made its way into the wrinkles of my brain, it'll stay with me for a long time.

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