Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

4 reviews

rochelles_reading_journal's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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abbie_'s review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

I made a good decision on reading all of Maggie O’Farrell’s backlist! This is my third by her and it’s a gripping dual POV narrative following two women, 50 years apart, figuring out motherhood. I loved Lexie’s storyline, a single woman in the 50s and 60s defying all convention, making a name for herself in journalism, raising a baby as an unmarried, single mother and basically just doing whatever she wants. The second storyline follows Elena, a painter who is struggling to get back to grips with her work after the traumatic birth of her son. Juggling that with her boyfriend who is acting increasingly strange, experiencing flashbacks to a childhood he previously couldn’t remember which knock him for six each time. 

An engaging read which you should check out if you enjoy family secrets and themes of motherhood!
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jbear's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

2.5

This was such a strange read for me. My first book of the author's was 'I am, I am, I am' which is semi-biographical. I was absolutely entranced by the writing and story-telling, rated it 5-stars and was thrilled to see novels from the same author. However, I think I picked a dud here. I feel as though the author was trying something new here, and it didn't quite work out. There were some brilliant bits of writing, and the story had promise. However, there was so much descriptive filler that did not add to the story at all. I'm talking 3 or more pages describing 5 minutes of a character's working day that is in no way relevant to the plot. In my opinion, for this storyline to work, the character development needed to be the main focus of the book, and a far greater portion of the word count would have been better used on this. Overall, this was a very promising story that was severely let down by excessive, unnecessary description. Resulting in a painfully slow-paced book that I very nearly did not finish. However, I will try one of Maggie O'Farrell's earlier novels as the reviews on these are typically excellent and the good bits of writing really are very good.
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bexdubyah's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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