Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

19 reviews

penguins_save_lives's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0


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clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

I found this book incredibly well-written and moving, but I wouldn't exactly call it enjoyable to read. This is a heavy, sad, and tortured story, and there's not a lot of relief even in the "happy ending." That's of course the point - life is complicated, and the situation in this book is incredibly complicated - but it's a little more bittersweet than I usually prefer in my romance books. Then again, this isn't exactly a romance book so much as it's a story about living with extreme tragedy and figuring out how to make peace with old versions of yourself and of your parents' expectations of yourself. For pure enjoyment of this book I'd probably give it three stars, but I'm going with four stars because I did find it really powerful and thought-provoking.

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caitlin_bookchats's review against another edition

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challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Yulin Kuang's debut romance novel fits nicely in with the complex tragedies in the lives of Romance characters written by Mhairi McFarlane or Emily Henry.

I'm struggling a bit to rate this book though. It's a romance so the main couple matters quite a lot. Here's I was not so invested in them as a couple as I was invested in them as individuals. And somehow, as individuals being together was what they needed.

Yet I'm still not certain I understand how we got from the words and actions of our FMC in the first few chapters to their romantic involvement. I feel like I missed something.

At the same time I really appreciated and admired the big swing of the emotional conflict here. the FMC and the MMC both had a lot of baggage specifically between them, but not necessarily baggage that could be solved. If that makes any sense. Rather, they had to learn to live with it and that felt very emotionally honest.

I loved the character development the FMC went though most of all and her relationship with the MMC was an important part of that.

So, I'm going to give it 4 stars for now but I reserve the right to downgrade if my memory of the book fades too much. You better believe I'll be picking up Kuang's next book though.

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taniyi2000's review against another edition

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

3.5


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fatfemmequeer's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad 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

3.0


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elizabethzott's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I found the whole premise of this book to be so unbelievable I struggled to get into the book. I also didn’t like the main character for the first half of the book. I almost didn’t finish this book as the discussion of suicide was a lot to keep at the forefront of the plot. 

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rchulin1's review against another edition

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sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Ehhh nothing special 

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mariah_g's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.0

I liked the storyline and the characters enough. I was hooked till about 75% of the way through before I started to get bored with the story. I think it’s because it had a pretty typical rom-com climax that just got predictable. The spice also wasn’t all that great. 

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senga15's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny 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

4.5


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alpinchi's review

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dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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