Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - The Great Believers

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The dual timelines broke up the story too much for me. I preferred the story set in 1980s Chicago to the one in the present day.

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elenushka8's review

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emotional sad slow-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

4.75

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zosiablue's review against another edition

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emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is how I was able to finally pinpoint that I feel grief in my chest and stomach. I haven't read anything this gutting in a long, long time.

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mxcopmy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.5

3.5-4 stars.

Here I am. Typing down my thoughts with a lump in my throat after reading this story. What a wonderfully painful book was this. It definitely awakened something in me.

On the one hand, Makkai completely immerses the reader in the gay community, localised in Chicago where the AIDS pandemic is rampant in the early 1980s. You are mainly introduced to Yale and his friends who form a close-knit group and try their best to resist the disease with its attendant stereotypes. You are really brought into a world of protests, suffering and the great demand for equality. On the other hand, there is a fast forward to 2015 where we follow Fiona who is still bumping into problems because she has never been able to let go of her past 100% and in the process starts her search for her daughter Claire who wants to stay far away from her parents, somewhere in Paris. It all hit me incredibly hard, especially because you feel from very close quarters how hard it must have been to have to deal with something in that era that crumbles the entire community they have built. I got a bit of "a little life" vibes at times because of the important component of friendship.

At the beginning of the book, I was briefly startled that it was written in the third person. I am not easily intrigued when it is written in a detached way, but in the end, that is exactly what made the story more personal and touched me even more. For instance, it often seemed that you were part of the group of friends and that you could hear conversations from a distance and witness the events. I think that this is one of the biggest reasons why the story grabbed me so much. I think Rebecca did an excellent job of starting to capture the emotions in the story. Both sadness and the great fear that accompanied with this disease. But also the joy of just having friends trying to pull you away from this reality for a while. I felt tremendous emotion & commitment towards the characters from this book. Really a great feeling after reading a book.

However, there are some things that I could not understand enough on my own. For instance, there are long-winded parts in the story where Yale visits Nora so that her art can be put up for exhibition. This was gruelling after a while and not very interesting. Next, the parts where Fiona stays in Paris were sometimes sloppy. I find the whole I-see-Claire principle very vague and could not evoke much emotion for Claire or understanding because of this. Towards the end, you also notice that several years are passed very quickly. For instance, you go from 1989 to 1992 in no time at all which I found very unfortunate, because the year 1985 was actually discussed at length which made me so wrapped up in the story.

Apart from a few sloppy errors in translation, I still managed to enjoy the story. Although enjoyment is a wrong word, as I sympathised immensely with these people & sadly ended the story. On this note: highly recommended.

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emma_ekb's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful sad 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? Yes

5.0

i’m very unsure if this rating now… might go up or down a .25 star.

this book is one that will stick with me a long time. the characters were dynamic, i loved them but simultaneously wanted to shake them. at first i wasn’t as big of a fan of the fiona chapters but the way everything weaves together by the end is so lovely. the book deals a lot with the burden of memory - ie, who remembers us when we’re gone? How can we continue the people we loves memory after they pass?

the author called this book “defiantly hopeful” and i think that’s a perfect description.

my one note is that this took me forever to read, not because it’s not compelling but because it took me a very long time to process things

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