Reviews with content warning for Grief - Amazing Grace Adams

I don’t particularly like this book but at the same time, I think it is well written and beautiful at times. I don’t usually give .5 in my reviews - 3 for books I don’t like and 4 for books I do. This one gets a 3.5.

This novel just isn’t for me. I’m not a mother and will never be in this lifetime. The story, at its core, is about motherhood. I understand the many themes of motherhood in the book and can sympathize with Grace. However, I can’t relate to her or empathize with her pain.

This novel is dark. Grace is in a lot of pain for most of the novel. I feel like I was baited and then switched. This is not a funny, light-hearted read like it is advertised to be. The story deals with some very heavy and serious topics. I didn’t laugh reading this book, I cried. It was heart-wrenching and I found it to be very depressing.

That being said, the novel is very well written. The plot device of flipping back and forth from the past and present worked really well. It felt like a mystery for 75% of the story. It was fun, I tried to figure out why people acted in certain ways and did certain things. The descriptive language throughout the book was beautiful at times and always made me feel like I was right there with Grace the entire time. It was like watching a movie.

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bootrat's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

I enjoyed some parts of this book, but there were lots of aspects I didn't like. Firstly that it was far too slow, and poorly paced. We don't find out one of the major plot points about Grace's life until over 250 pages in, and it just seemed to come out of nowhere. The fact that the book jumped between three timelines just made me impatient to find out what the hell was going on (mainly with Lotte), so even as I was enjoying reading the other timelines I was wanting to skip them to get to Lotte.

Lotte's plotline was unfortunately very recognisable to me (and I predicted what was coming), which made it quite hard to read. I also detested the way it was handled by every adult in the book. As somebody who works with kids and in safeguarding I was screaming.

I think my biggest gripe with this book though is that from the blurb and the start of the book it seems fairly lighthearted, just a book struggling with getting older and with her relationship with her daughter, but then as a reader you're suddenly thrown into these quite dark situations without expecting it. It didn't fit the vibe.

I also hate that all of Graces problems are just blamed on ~hormones, when actually she's inches away from a mental breakdown (which imo is what the "current day" timeline documents). It felt quite misogynistic, even though it was written by a woman and presumably based somewhat on her own experience of peri-menopause. Grace really needs to see a therapist, instead of blaming all her actions and thoughts on the hormonal changes in her body.

If you want to read this book, absolutely check the trigger warnings first.

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knoteboom's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

2.75 - in hindsight I should not have picked this book up while on a vacation. The book hits on some serious topics:

motherhood but also being a human, a woman, child-loss, aging.

Grace represents a little of us all on our journey of live. Definitely worth a read just don’t expect it to be light and fluffy.

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erinsca's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.0

I wanted so badly to like this book but I really hated it. Some of the prose was really beautiful and the way the author described the struggle of middle aged womanhood and parenting was really lovely, but the plot, pacing, timeline, and events were unbearable.

This poor woman loses a burgeoning career because of an unplanned pregnancy and everything goes downhill from there. Her second child dies in an accident, her husband cheats while she is drowning in grief, her first daughter has an affair with a teacher, and in the end her husband and daughter leave her. The book is set in a single day with flashbacks interspersed and even that day is traumatic with a sexual assault on a bus and so much pain. In the end she’s arrested and there’s some familial resolution but I was so frustrated and demoralized by the end that the paltry amount of redemption was not enough to counterbalance the misery that was this novel.

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kshertz's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a tough read but I believe that that is because it is so real and honest. It’s definitely very reflective of a tough life lived. There is a lot of admiration for Grace and what she’s been through but you’re very confused throughout the book because it’s only giving you half of the story. When you finally realize why Grace and Ben could not make the relationship work and why Grace is such a mess it all makes sense. But I feel like you spent way too much of the book not understanding Grace and hating her as a character so that when she’s finally redeemed and you understand her, you’re upset it took this long to understand her. I think a reveal earlier about her life would’ve been helpful for me to read this hire. I think people who are interested in really gritty hard life stories would enjoy this even though it’s fiction. For me it was a little bit too real!!

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prairieraven's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

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

3.25

Wish this book came with reader warnings for trauma responses (which start to happen part way through the book) starts out a bit fun, but as time goes on the story becomes wildly unhinged, and switches from amusing to beyond heartbreaking.

Not sure of this story affected me more because I'm a parent of children/some now adults, or because I have my own traumas and mental health issues. The main characters are all flawed like real people and make the best and worst decisions like we all do.

I read this all in one sitting, started at 11pm and finished at 2 am. The storyline hooks start early with this one and pull all the way through. Heartbreaking all the way through to the end.

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rachelsbookishlife's review against another edition

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1.0

** spoiler alert ** This book took me 4 days to finish. I generally read a book in 1 to 2 days. I had no desire to continue picking this up, and usually i would DNF, but i made a promise to see it through. And that i did. So this 1 star comes scathing from my computer so i can rant to you all about how terrible Grace is. This book is everything but the kitchen sink, there is absolutely way too much going on. Grace is not redeemable, even with her tragedies. Grace is a miserable human being, as well as everyone around her. Her husband betrays her, her daughter is worst than an angsty teen. I don't think there was a good discussion on women's bodies as there was a constant focus on Grace's body and the discussion around the grooming from her daughter's teacher was also just poorly done. The author wanted to put so much stuff in that everything was only mildly touched on, instead of picking 1 or 2 big topics and really making sure they talked about the detriment of those topics. I did not like that she didn't want kids, but instead got pregnant and changed her mind. So you know just like everyone in society says. Not only that she then goes on to just not be a good mom. She slaps her daughter, she has weird thoughts about her body, she stops being a mom for 5 weeks and then just comes back and everything is supposed to be normal. Not to mention her current day timeline where she beats the crap out of a car because SHE HAS TO BRING HER DAUGHTER A CAKE! insert confused face meme here... But of course it's because she is Perimenopausal... because you know women and their hysteria and all.
The only thing i will give her is that she reported her daughter's teacher for being a POS.
The flow was clunky, the chapters confusing. It has 3 perspectives, 2 of them are past timelines - 1 is 4 months before and after and the other is 2002 and after, and it has a current day timeline. All 3 timelines are frantic and baffling, as they have flashbacks that come without warning. The current day timeline is all in the place of 1 day, which just adds to the chaos of this book. In the end, this book is nothing like Where'd You Go Bernadette, or Ove or Brit Marie or any other quirky character that isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Grace was insufferable and i will not change my mind.

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sincerelykiwi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

It took too long to get what was driving Grace’s actions and, of course, when we get there it’s heartbreaking.

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