Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

193 reviews

lulialof's review against another edition

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

3.0

It had a good pace and nice focus on a special, deep friendship. It is not the most realistic story out there, but it does not have to be. Felt influenced by Normal People (Sally Rooney) and A little life (Hanya Yanagihara), but still keeping love and overcoming challenges at the heart of the story, rather than digging a deep hole of misery. Easy to read, not earthshatteringly unique or fascinating in terms of story and language, but still captivating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Cultural appropriation

bestturnip's review against another edition

hopeful 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

3.0

Chose this as it was a mega bestseller in 2023 but it fell a bit flat for me.  Spoiler warning:

The constant switch up in writing perspectives and styles

like cutting to a page of game reviews or an interview in the future with Sadie / Sam

was an interesting choice but once or twice I felt it detracted from the story. 

Marx and his chapters hit home the most for me - despite making him the obvious "likeable" character while Sadie and Sam's flaws were obviously meant to be a main focus. 

Some of the word choices in the prose (not only character dialogue) felt a bit over the top and like the author wanted to remind you how smart, not only the characters, but she was.

I absolutely hated

the choice to have Sadie remain in contact with Dov after her experiences. Even if it is realistic, there wasn't enough emphasis for me on WHY Sadie made that choice other than 'she still looked up to him'

The passages from Marx's POV

with both the Macbeth and Strawberry Thief references were my favourite part and I honestly struggle to understand why his focus was as more of an NPC? If it was meant to be a big reference to how Sadie and Sam treated him, it was a bit flat.

Overall there were some really emotional and resonant scenes, and the references to theatre, art, and games were typically well thought out and had a place in the story. I wish that this book had a better idea of exactly what it was about, so our throughlines didn't get so muddled.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma

Minor: Racial slurs, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

chloel29's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

jkwel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.75

Sadie Green and Sam Masur. A beautiful relationship between two people. This book will be challenging me for a long time post read to evaluate my relationships with people and recognize how important these people are and can be in my life. Emotional story, beautifully written, this will stick with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

augie_grabenstein's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Chronic illness, Cursing, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Abortion, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

heidi_fischer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lkilmer17's review against another edition

slow-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

0.25

Lacking in excitement and never drew me in. Was almost a DNF. I will give some props for talking about real life current events and advocating for diverse characters, but not what I was expecting from such a radically raved about novel. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

lordcafeine's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexism, and Vomit

Minor: Terminal illness

lily1304's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

The plot is so slow that I didn't realize how much I loved the characters until like halfway through. The story is bittersweet and makes me want to hug my friends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Cultural appropriation

squidface's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

I raced through this book, which is a testament to Kevin's ability to pace well, write readable characters, and overall keep me that engaged. I nearly gave this a 5/5 but the book has a few flaws that downgraded it for me.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adored this book, flaws and all (which is definitely one of the themes of the book - loving someone wholly despite their flaws and your flaws). I loved the literary references, the use of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, and thought it was interesting that those things fell away as the characters got older - but yet it was sort of a turning plot point in the later third of the book to bring Macbeth back in so the characters could emotionally connect again (sorry if this doesn't make much sense, I'm trying to keep the review as spoiler free as possible).
I felt, as others have pointed out, that Zevin was using some kind of word of the day thing and tried to shoehorn in as many random words as possible. Tuberose was overused as an adjective. She misused the word tautology (who proofed this?). 
I disagree with whoever said she clearly doesn't understand music - those observations about Miles Davis et al in the book are made from a character point of view and definitely aren't the views of the author.
Although I did at times find the characters to be thinly veiled versions of parts of Zevin, for the most part they're adorkable.
Despite the flaws, I think Zevin is an amazing and accomplished writer. And this book is definitely worth a read. 
For me it actually could have gone into more elaboration about the games world itself and the business side of it, but I suppose in the end the book focused on relationships between people, and that's what mattered more, because it played to it's strengths.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail