Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

498 reviews

not_another_ana's review against another edition

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challenging funny lighthearted sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

And maybe that was what real, adult love was. Being fearless enough to hold each other close no matter how catastrophic the world became. Loving each other with enough ferocity to quell the fears of the past. Just fucking being there.

When Eva was a teenager, she had a wild and passionate week with Shane. It was wild, drug fueled, and life changing. But that's all in the past, and she is now the successful author of an erotic book series and the mother of a precocious daughter. However, when Shane returns, now also a famous award winning author, and they cross paths for another seven days Eva will have to reckon with her past and consider if maybe this time is the right time for the two of them.

I knew I was doomed to dislike this from the moment I read the opening lines, but I persevered since this was a book club read. There's just something about the way this is written that never clicked with me. The writing is too reference heavy in a way that already makes it dated and lackluster. Tia Williams has this odd habit of describing everything with brand names that was distracting and embarrassing. Here's an example: "... when his phone vibrated on his arm (where it was slotted in his Nathan iPhone armband, rated Best Accessory of 2019 by RunnersWorld.com).", like am I reading a novel or is this Vogue magazine trying to sell me overpriced shit I don't need.

Then there's the characters. Eva and Shane are the only ones who seem realistic, and sure they're the protagonists and we get to see their pasts and inhabit their minds, so the contrast with everybody else in this book is huge. Everyone else was caricaturesque, the closet to a stereotype the author could get her hands on. You have these two broken people trying to reconnect and be emotionally honest only for a side character to pop and talk about wacky shit regarding vaginas or something else wildly out of place. And what was up with the mega cringe fans and NPCs being full on tiktok braindead? Excruciating to read. Speaking of which... AUDRE. I have a personal beef with that fictional child. She was supposedly twelve years old but read like a much younger kid, she was not funny nor endearing but closer to a conservative parody of gen z kids. In fact I was CONVINCED that the author was childless and had never interacted with a small human being and was flabbergasted when I read her thank you at the end to her actual in real life daughter.

That's what haunted me while reading this book, the tone. It swung wildly like a turnstile, and the discrepancy soured me on the whole matter. The opening lines have a funny jokey tone, they're light and cheeky, only to grow dark when we revisit the past and then back to the jokes and the caricatures and raunchyness. I wish the author had just focused on the main couple and deleted all the extra povs from side characters, the brand mentions, the annoying child, because the core relationship could have been good. Then there's the seven days gimmick that didn't come across all that well to me, I feel like it was a mistake to gloss over the seven days in the past even if you can excuse the narration growing hazy due to the drug use and trauma. 

And my last big complaint has to do with the ending.
There was no need to kill Ty off, we didn't know him well enough for his death to be devastating (plus he was getting mentioned a bit too much for my drama senses not to tingle) and had no time to really sit with the grief his death cause Shane considering it happens when there's only 10% of the book left. It also leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth after the author has a scene explicitly calling out publishers for only wanting books that exploit black characters' situations.
It wasn't really satisfactory to me.
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alexasolis98's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing 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

2.5

Eva and Shane. What to say? They have a beautiful, complicated, heartbreaking love story. Audre was adorable and wise for her age. I loved Audre's and Shane's relationship. 
My issues were the number of pop culture references. I also felt that Eva and Shane's relationship should have been shown a bit more after the epilogue. Both of them have traumas and issues of their own that I don't feel like were fully resolved. But I guess the author implies that they will be doing it together?
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9.1.24 
I can't stop thinking about this book. I cannot definitely say that Shane and Eva loved each other. They spent a week together while teenagers and during that time they were drinking/using drugs. Can you truly say you loved that person, if you never spent enough time with them outside the influence? ...brb
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plueschi77's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lisettemarie's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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hannahelaine's review against another edition

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DNF @ 36%. I honestly am just getting a lot of cognitive dissonance from this book? It literally has a “The State of the Black Author” panel in the book that condemns blaxploitation in media, and how there needs to be more black joy and showing black people as literally just any other person instead of deeply and always traumatized. And then it seems (to me, who is a white person) to do exactly the opposite and be the paragon of blaxploitation.  Maybe I’m missing something since this book isn’t written for me specifically and I don’t have the cultural context for it. I don’t know. But it seems very dissonant in what it’s saying and doing. It feels icky. I may be misinterpreting the author— I certainly haven’t stumbled on any black reviewers saying the same thing, so I may be totally getting it wrong. But it feels icky for me, so I’m just going to leave it. 

I honestly don’t even have thoughts on the romance or even the plot because that has overshadowed everything else for me.  I feel weird about it and I’m just not going to continue. 

Finally, this is a little more a nitpick than criticism on the book, but some content warnings would be good to put in this one. There’s a lot of extremely dangerous self-harming situations. I didn’t know this going in, and recently have been having pretty bad mental health issues requiring partial hospitalization. Luckily It didn’t throw my mood or thoughts in a bad direction, but it could have. A little warning ahead of time would have been nice. 
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noragoudie's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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

4.25

This was a beautiful romance book, because it covered so much and made its characters so full and developed. I wanted to branch out and read more romance about non-white leads, and this was so beautiful and had me smiling many times. I think there was even more depth that could have been explored, but it was wonderful overall.
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redefiningrachel's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-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

2.0

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mrsbodey's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • 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

They spend a week together as teens and then become authors and write to/about each other ever since. The premise is darling. The book didn’t quite deliver on being darling. It was still a really good book. Challenging, sometimes dark, very realistic characters. Read it! But not if you’re looking for something charming. 
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fatimaaa3's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ashaelise's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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