alexandrabelze's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Terminal illness
Minor: Medical content
izzybla's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
sarah984's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, and Terminal illness
Minor: Abortion, Car accident, and Alcoholism
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Car accident, Abandonment, and Cancer
Minor: Abortion, Bullying, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, and Infidelity
irisraerah's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
If you are familiar with the film studies phenomenon of "dead wife footage" (which I will now over explain in a condescending way that reveals I don't trust you to put a simple 2+2 together for a rather simple concept, oh hey like Kawaguchi does seven times a chapter!), where a dead wife or girlfriend is remembered, either in home videos, dreams, or memories shot in brighter, more nostalgic colors, showing her to be carefree and loving and always centering the protagonist above herself usually to the point of lacking any discernable personality herself beyond "innocent and beautiful," you've already read this book. Put it down, perhaps search up Caitlyn Rylie's TikTok about this trope, and move on with your day.
Continuing with sexist tropes, the women in this book
Spoiler
lose their magic when they get pregnant.Finally, this book is extremely redundant. Not just story to story, but page to page, sometimes paragraph to paragraph, the exact same things get repeated over and over. It would be one thing if this was to give context only to things that occurred in the earlier books, which in the books defense does occur, but it repeats everything two or three times minimum. For such a short book it boggles my mind to say this, but this book would be leagues better if it had one third the word count it does.
For "Baby's First Book About Grief," maybe you could get something out of this. If you're slightly introspective at all, have ever experienced grief yourself, or just don't enjoy three pages of incorrect analysis about the "To Be or Not To Be" monologue from Hamlet (wild to get a reference about suicide so wrong in a book with themes of death and suicide, though the book a very elementary understanding of both so what did I expect), read something else.
Moderate: Terminal illness, Death, Suicide, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
hello_lovely13's review
- 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
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Mental illness, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness
Minor: Car accident and Pregnancy
neverlandangel's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent
georgiacatt's review
- 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
3.75
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
claudetteshelfs's review against another edition
- 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
I can still feel the levity reading this, despite the stories feeling a little monotonous, especially toward the end, and the way the rules kept repeating in every chapter turning out to be unsettling for me.
Graphic: Mental illness, Death, and Chronic illness
samarakroeger's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.25
but then again, maybe I'm just cold-hearted.
Graphic: Grief, Death, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts