Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Before We Were Strangers

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Before We Were Strangers by Renée Carlino

13 reviews

brinkley's review

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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valeriaboom's review

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slow-paced

2.75

The first part of this book was amazing, I thought it would be 5 stars, and I was actually enjoying it a lot until page 231!!! but then things started to go downhill and I hated it so so much. Dan and his relationship with Grace creeped me out so much,

Spoiler

and the fact that they got married??? Wtf!

I also absolutely hate the miscommunication trope, and it made no sense at all in this book!!!

Spoiler

And the unexpected pregnancy? No thank you!

It made me sad how much this book made me angry, and even though I liked most of it, I can’t give it more than 2 stars for that stupid ass ending grrrr

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nzmerchant's review

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.0

Already knew from the second chapter that this book would not be up my alley. Wanted to give it a fair chance but the characters really irritated me - only liked Matt’s mom and Ash. I think the characters were portrayed a bit too idealistically and there were a lot of things in their characters that I would have liked to see further developed - like Matt’s relationship with his family and how that affects his romantic relationships, and why Matt trivialised some of Grace’s valid concerns. Idk felt like everything was very surface level and mopey even in their internal dialogues. Similar miscommunication/wrong timing plot as Normal People but without the character’s self awareness and reflection lmao. I also really dislike Grace’s arc

Spoiler

- why did she marry Pornsake and have a kid with Matt? Surely there would have been better ways of developing the plot rather than perpetuating creepy student-teacher relationships. And I hate that Matt got to be the career guy and have a great career but Grace didn’t?

Overall, not a fan.

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mimo_'s review against another edition

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medium-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

1.0

they should’ve stayed strangers 🥱

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julierambaeck's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

This is a no from me. Did not like the characters whatsoever, they were childish and they just kept on whining... I found the characters super toxic, and the relationship even more. The maincharacters did not grow at all they were the same throughout the whole story that spans over 15 years and NOTHING happened with them as characters.

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bookswithbront's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

I’m so conflicted about this book.

The characters drove me insane, and some of the story points didn’t work for me. But at the same time, I didn’t want to put it down.

The “before” parts of this book felt so real and true to what it’s like to fall in love in college. And yet I don’t understand why Matt’s character was so much more developed than Grace’s. Even when she was narrating, I felt like I was seeing her through Matt’s eyes. Matt was so much more nuanced and at times straight-up unlikeable, but I always understood what was going on with him. I think if we’d gotten the same for Grace it would have improved the book exponentially for me.

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lauren717's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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lindseybarnett's review

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dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

lujisa's review against another edition

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emotional fast-paced

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

4.5

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martapsalvado's review

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

2.75

Meh. I enjoyed reading this for the most part and it's a really easy read. However, a lot of things were wrong with these characters and I didn't find myself really attached to them or their relationship. The plot was kind of repetitive and not that original.

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