Reviews tagging 'Grief'

All the Bad Apples by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

11 reviews

cassie_books8's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Abandonment, Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Abortion, Grief, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Child death, and Rape

achay91's review against another edition

challenging sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Pedophilia, Abortion, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Incest, Rape, Homophobia, Cursing, Grief, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Child death

luckydory's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

Loved the idea, premise, and political message of this story. I enjoyed most of the book but for some reason I STRUGGLED to finish the final 1/4. I read as an audiobook, maybe that was why I felt sort of lost?... I wanted to finish it, and glad I did because the author end note from 2018 to learn just how much of this story (horrifically) is real was fascinating and also inspiring.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Grief, Child death, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Rape

alissa_m's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Minor: Biphobia, Outing, and Rape

karapillar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Biphobia, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicide, Vomit, Misogyny, and Outing

moodreaderlesbian's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

When I packed this book to take with me for visiting family over the holidays I didn't remember what I'd read it would be about when I bought it. I started reading it in order to avoid family drama and this was the perfect book to do so, I read another family's drama to ignore my own. I could not put this book down and read it in 4 days even though I'm easily distracted and a slow reader.
This book was more mysterious and dark than what I'm used to and what I expected but the cover did warn me it would be like that so that was on me. Nevertheless, the story was very intriguing and to quote Captain Holt from B99: "I didn't know what was happening, and then I thought I knew what was happening, but what I thought I knew was happening wasn't what was happening." 
Since having found sapphic books I can not bring myself to read books that don't involve any wlw characters or story lines and this one was the perfect example of how you can write a story with a sapphic character without the main topic being a wlw romance. 
All in all I highly recommend All the Bad Apples but I advise everyone to check out the trigger warnings because it discusses and mentions very heavy issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Rape, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol and Miscarriage

stelepami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Outing, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

lyonsdenprojects's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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

5.0

 I love this writer's work so much. I love how deeply rooted in Irish culture and history her work is, especially this book. It highlights the atrocities that women have been subjected to in modern Irish history since the English occupation in a way that is captivating without being so graphic that it's off putting. The empathy she develops with the ancestors of the main character is so heart grabbing that I ended up staying up way late just to finish the book. This is a definite must read. 

I also especially love how this author writes magic into her books. It's this beautiful realism that sometimes has scientific explanations and sometimes is just ephemeral enough to make you wonder if it really happened or the characters just saw it in their own mind. I love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Abortion, Violence, Suicide, Rape, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Incest, and Pedophilia

frutista_freeze's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

While I admire what this book was trying to do and bring awareness to, the reveals at the end took me out of the story and made me roll my eyes.

Dina was really the one who wrote the letters??  Omg Rachel got pregnant... and  Mandy got pregnant twice!1! ! What a shocking moment

I also found the family tree a little hard to follow while listening to the audiobook. As far as characters go, the core four (Dina, Finn, Ida, and Kale) were all severely underdeveloped . I also completely missed that Finn was biracial until the very end so there goes the racial diversity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

Moderate: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Trafficking

misssleepless's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Sexism

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Homophobia

Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide, and Vomit