Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Other Half of Augusta Hope

Slow to start but enjoyed it overall. There are some characters who are kept on the periphery who I think could have added more depth to the story.
Explores the impact of turning a blind eye to your own privilege and consequently other people's experiences, particularly in terms of immigration and disability.
Augusta seems to be the only member of her family who is outward looking and actively seeking to learn more about the wider world. Although this means she often comes across as a pretentious child she is ultimately a relatable and likable character.
The contrast between her early life and Parfait's are stark. Punctuated by tragedy Parfait's story weaves themes of civil war and violence through the narrative.
Both dreaming of escape to Spain it's obvious their paths will cross eventually, the tension is in when, how and will they learn the truth of the tragedy that connects them.

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bookforthought's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

It took me a while to get to this book, so that once I did I had basically forgotten the synopsis entirely and went in almost completely blind. I have to say, it was probably for the best, as I probably would have ended up expecting something different!

The Other Half of Augusta Hope is a bittersweet story about love, grief and finding your place in the world. Augusta is an endearing main character, even though she's not always likeable (but then again, who is?). She is brilliant and curious about the world, loves Burundi despite having never been there, and struggles greatly with life in her small town, despite her deep, deep love for her twin sister Julia. In parallel, the story follows Parfait, a young man from Burundi whose life is very different from Augusta's. When tragedy strikes both of them differently, each will have to work out where they belong.

I really liked the characterisation in this novel: every character was beautifully drawn, imperfections and all, and felt like truly individual, even the minor characters. The characters' feelings and emotions were particularly well fleshed out, which is something I always appreciate. The parallels between Augusta's and Parfait's lives flowed smoothly for most of the novel, and the transitions were handled very well. There were a few times when the move felt a bit clunky, but overall these were few and far between enough to ignore. The story development was engaging, though I won't go into too much more detail to avoid potential spoilers. I will say though: that ending was everything!

I had some issues with the pacing in this book though: at times it felt like it was really dragging along and not much was happening either in terms of plot or character development. The parts where things got moving made up for this, but it was still tough to wade through those parts. There was also a heavy reliance on miscommunication/lack of communication as a plot device, which is something I personally dislike, so my enjoyment of this novel was affected by how annoyed I was getting at the characters for not talking to each other. This is purely down to personal preference though!

Overall, this book was fairly engaging to read and definitely had some memorable characters. I'll be looking out for more books by this author!

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eloise_reads's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-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

The Other Half of Augusta Hope follows Augusta from her childhood to her adult years, alongside her best friend and twin sister Julia.
We also follow chapters told from Parfait and whilst the two stories remain completely separate for most of the book, it is clear that they will join up together at some point.

Firstly, Joanna Glen's writing is absolutely beautiful. It is one of the main things I loved about All My Mothers when I read this last year.

Unfortunately I did not connect with the story as much as I would have liked. It was very slow paced and I did not like Augusta's character, which meant a book told mostly from her perspective was quite difficult to get on board with.

I was intrigued to where the story of both main characters was headed so I did read on but sadly I just felt a bit disconnected the entire time.

I also was not aware of some of the triggers for this book (listed below) and if I would have been aware, I would not have picked this up at the moment so it could simply be a case of right book wrong time.

Trigger warnings (some of which may be considered spoilers): Stillbirth/suicide/death of a sibling/drowning

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nicola4e's review against another edition

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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

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mrsrjg's review

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dark funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.0

This book blindsided me; it is not something that I had ever heard of but it was suggested for our book group so gave it a go and I'm so glad I did. First of all in reading the synopsis I came to the conclusion that I was the living embodiment of Augusta and having finished I conclude this is in fact correct (as a child I read the dictionary and my atlas for fun and also used to do maths problems under the covers at night 🙈). Side note - as with Augusta picking Burundi as her favourite country based on the name, I also picked my favourite capital city this way (Ulaan Bator for those interested 😄).

As I digress, much as I feel Augusta would, I absolutely fell in love with this book and also with the character of Augusta; so much so that I was a bit downhearted when it came to Parfait's chapters, I understand why they were there though but just preferred them a little less. I normally don't like books where everything is connected as it always just feels a bit convenient but in this book it is done so well that I actually really enjoyed it.

The only other thing I felt a bit strange about was Diego not being told a big event towards the end which I didn't feel was right nor was it ever really explained why he wasn't told.

Apart from those minor issues, I absolutely loved this and it's absolutely a book I could read time and time again.

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laureneg11's review

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challenging emotional funny inspiring 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? No

4.0

Content Warnings

novellenovels's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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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