Reviews tagging Suicide attempt

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

7 reviews

lilybearillini3's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

This is easily one of the best books this year, if not the best fiction.  There were many points when I was moved to tears.  It is absolutely beautifully written and the narrator's voice (for the audiobook) was perfect and calming.  

I honestly don't know how to write a review for this and do it justice, I am at a loss of words.  It is a story of great friendship, love, and trials.  Every character had their complexities and were not always, if at all, likeable

Spoiler

except Marx, Marx is perfect

, but that is reality.

There was never a dull point of this book, I was interested and engaged the entire time.  The choice to show their friendship over decades was refreshing and I also really liked that we didn't switch POVs every chapter, I feel like that concept has been played out.  The video game nerd in me loved that the author did their research on video game history and what it takes to make video games.  While I don't like the miscommunication trope, I didn't find myself frustrated.  I understood why they weren't communicating because the characterization was so well done.

I normally don't go into books with expectations, but John Green said it was one of his favorite books of this year, so the need to read it was urgent.  John Green didn't let me down.  It was truly an honor to read Sadie, Sam, and Marx's journey.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Ableism, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Abortion, Drug use, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Antisemitism and Terminal illness

trinamarie's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Beautifully written book about friendship and love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia

jenmcreads's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

I was conflicted throughout reading this book, but ultimately I did enjoy it. I would advise checking trigger warnings on this book as I think the way it is written can hit pretty hard on trigger points. What I loved in this book was the exploration of the value we place on romantic versus platonic relationships, given the central relationship in the book is platonic. The story was emotional, and well-paced given its sweeping timeline. I did not love the handling of mental health in all cases, but that is to a degree a matter of personal preference. I would definitely recommend this book, however would caution to read when you feel fairly stable in your own mental health. (Specific minor spoilers hidden with spoiler tag)

Spoiler

I was honestly particularly upset by the use of a background character's suicide to propel the plot of main characters who did not even know her. That felt emotionally manipulative and exploitive to me and it was a part of the book I struggled to move past. Similarly, I felt the treatment of abortion was quite glib and did not add much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Car accident, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

m00ncake's review

emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicide

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Drug use, and Gun violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, and Abortion

icieri's review

reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Cancer, Pregnancy, Murder, Medical trauma, Injury/injury detail, Infidelity, Gun violence, and Car accident

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, and Suicide

Minor: Abortion

calebg's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Abortion, Body shaming, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

I really didn't like this book. The characters were unlikeable and got in their own way and that ultimately hindered them. They both are really terrible people that have been dealt a bad hand and don't make the most of it. Also Sam, is written as seemingly autistic and I don't think it was mentioned at all. So idk, I really didn't like it and don't get the hype.

jennastopreading's review

emotional reflective sad slow-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

Thank you Knopf for my advance readers copy of this book!

As a huge Gabrielle Zevin fan (The Storied Life of AJ Fikry is my FAVORITE book of all time), this is a hard review for me to write. Mainly because this book was a tricky one for me to read.

Here's what I liked about this story: Zevin has a way of creating characters and scenarios that feel like something you can search on Google to read more about. The people, the company they started, the entire story felt like it was based on real events, and I love when I'm reading about people that feel like they should have their own Wikipedia page.

I also LOVED the opening of this book. I was absolutely entranced for the first 50 or so pages, and I was excited to read a beautiful story about two flawed people. The beginning really satisfied my reader heart, but from there on out, it fizzled.

Now, onto the reason that this book didn't receive 5 stars from me...

First of all; literary fiction is not my go to genre. I am quick to admit that, and when I received this book, I don't know that I knew it was a lit fic novel. So if this is your genre of choice, PLEASE read the review of someone else and do not continue with mine - you will probably find an opinion closer to yours!

That being said, the writing style(s) in this book just did not work for me. The writing changed multiple times throughout the story and it made it hard for me to keep up. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to enjoy it, but I found it really hard to follow. The nonlinear timeline also made things tricky for me, and I think the chapter titles really could've benefitted from having the year in which it is set listed on them.

Additionally, some of the words used in this book felt like they were pulled straight from a thesaurus. I am of average intelligence, but as a reader with a relatively high vocabulary, I still found this hard to read. The use of words that I'd never heard (e.g. verisimilitude, umlaut) really pulled me out of the story.

Secondly, I had a hard time connecting to the story because of the amount of video game references throughout. Maybe if I'd played anything more than the occasional game of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 on my brothers PS2 as a 7 year old it would appeal to me more, but I found the amount of video game references and explanations to be tiring.

Thirdly, the pacing in this story was agonizingly slow. Not only did it feel like nothing was happening throughout, but at the end of it...it still felt like nothing happened. Not much character development happened in my opinion - both Sadie and Sam were still argumentative and hard headed. And the rest of the book was just as dissatisfying.

All in all, this is not the first Zevin book I would recommend to someone. I very much enjoyed Young Jane Young and The Storied Life of AJ Fikry more. They felt like they were written by an entirely different person, though, so sadly this was just not for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Gun violence, Pregnancy, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abortion