Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

At The End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

7 reviews

rxanne5's review

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Many people love this book, however, as much as I hate to say it, I didnt enjoy it so much.

It is very beautifully written and I do believe it's likeable. It was just a bit too 'less' for me. A lot happened in one location and that is something just not for me. 

I did shed some tears at the end. This book also put me in a slump. But, I did finish it, and I do love other books by this author. 

This was simply not for me, but I see many people connecting with it after lockdown. 

There's a diverse cast (as I can recall, it has been quite a few months). I did like the characters way of thinking and it kept me curious how the book would continue. I think what makes people connect with this book is how there's this kind of lock down, and how these teenagers go about it in a beautiful way, and people connect with that. The characters try to survive. But I think for me, that is what threw me off, because I hate feeling like that. Still a solid three stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Murder, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Child death

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Police brutality, and Abandonment

b3ck's review

challenging emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Medical content, Abandonment, Grief, Transphobia, and Confinement

Moderate: Medical content, Vomit, Outing, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual assault and Suicidal thoughts

laurennnn1066's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual assault, Mental illness, Violence, Gun violence, Grief, Death, Bullying, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Medical content, and Deadnaming

sonicb00's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I flew through this book and finished it in one day. It was a delightful book that held my attention the whole way through. Just when I thought that things might be getting a bit stale, something would happen in the plot, either character or circumstance based. I loved the alternating view points in this book, something I usually really don't like, but this kept it fresh and gave me diverse view points on a terrible situation. The book had as happy of an end as you could imagine for this sort of genre. It tied up enough loose ends to satisfy, but left enough open that you know this story will continue with the characters, not in a sequel per se, but there is story left up to the imagination after the end of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Transphobia, Classism, Homophobia, and Racism

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

If you're trying to stay away from anything that feels like the COVID pandemic, I'd recommend probably not picking this one up. While this is about a plague rather than a pandemic, a lot of the events feel very similar to what happened at the beginning of COVID. Things escalated much more quickly, too.

Anyway! I was expecting a more tense thriller kind of story with this one, and while those elements are there, it's more of a character driven story, focused on the teens in this detention center. Besides the plague and trying to survive, there's not much a plot driving the story. It's definitely the relationships and what transpires between this particular group of teens.

There's good representation here, with a variety of identities represented throughout the story. For the most part, I didn't necessarily feel emotionally invested in their story, but maybe that's because it felt too real? I can't quite put my finger on it. The descriptions of all of the measures they were taking against the plague, though, did feel very real. I did appreciate the world building and the extra pieces of news and information between the chapters. It helped build the intensity overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Medical content, and Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual violence, Deadnaming, and Sexual assault

Also realistic descriptions of a pandemic

anniereads221's review

challenging emotional 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

5.0

This book now holds a special place in my heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Mental illness, Transphobia, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Ableism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Death, Deadnaming, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

Eugenics Imprisonment

childoflight's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Sexual assault, Deadnaming, and Transphobia