Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Birthday by Meredith Russo

8 reviews

phantastic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

Intensely raw and emotional. This book deals with serious topics with the care and realism that they deserve.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Transphobia

Minor: Blood

katyfayyyx's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I have really mixed feelings about this book because 2 stars, feels to low but 3 stars feels to high because this book was just so weird to be because I think it is a really smart idea to see this friendship that turns into a relationship through the years through the one day they always share which is their birthday's but I just feel like there a some many books that I have read that just deal and work with the topic so much better than this book did.  However, do think this story will be a important read for a lot people and I think a lot of people will be seen in this book and I don't think this book is bad and just think there are lot of books out there that just deal with these topics better. 

And this was not a fun read but any means, it was just so miserable to read because they were both trying so hard to be what they thought the each other warned/needed. When all they ever needed was each other. I can't lie something  that really annoying me was if I knew (which the both do) that my friend really wasn't okay which is like super obvious that there is something going on, why would you just speak to them like girl, be some fucking for real. Like how could you live like that. However, I did like the ending which is one of the reason why I am confused about how I feel about this book because I loved them at the end and they were really cute and I was just really happy how quickly Eric and Morgan's dad accepted her and I loved for the minute that they both knew they never made a big deal and they just love and accept her which was just really nice and I thought their friendship/relationship was just really cute and I just really love them as a couple and I thought they were really wholesome and I believed that they generally did love each other and after Morgan came out, everything just made sense for both of them and that just made me really happy. Like when Eric said 'She's Morgan. My Morgan' really melted my heart. I just think one of my main issue I just felt like we knew Morgan a lot more than Eric, like I just didn't really ever get to know of Eric was outside the progression of the relationship, which I think meant that I didn't really care about this book as much as I would off if we knew both of them.  I am just so confused about how I felt about this book because I really liked the last two birthdays but I just found it really hard to connect with the characters and the story and I caught myself getting more and more bored as I carried on reading.

'We kiss, and we kiss, our whole future spiralling before us."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Addiction, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Blood, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual content and Outing

mayareadsxo's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Blood, Bullying, Dysphoria, Alcohol, and Homophobia

Minor: Transphobia, Vomit, and Suicide attempt

simbarabbit20's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Every birthday two friends always meet up. They were born in the same hospital on the same day in the same year. The one thing that keeps them together is American football. 

I really liked the book. It was so emotional and nearly had me in tears. I’m so glad it had a happy ending because if it didn’t I wouldn’t have coped. The transphobia and the homophobia was a lot but it was probably the right amount for a small town unfortunately. I would definitely not recommend reading it if that would affect you. 
I liked how it skipped years. It meant that the story could progress and we could see the progression of Morgan’s mom’s letters/DVDs. We could also see them growing up and it didn’t take forever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Violence, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Minor: Bullying, Medical content, and Hate crime

sydney_bookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

I really loved this book. It was interesting to see how the main characters evolved and developed and eventually found themselves. The book gives a window into Morgan and Eric’s minds, there relationship with each other and also with themselves. I like how the story didn’t feel sugar coated it seems real and raw. 
Additionally I found it really interesting seeing into Morgan’s mind throughout her struggles to accept and love her true self and her journey of self discovery. 

Loved this and recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

zorii's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Beautiful book. Amazing. Made me cry twice. A great love story about two friends growing up and falling in love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Homophobia, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

merlesstorys's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

I was sobbing throughout this whole book.
It delivered the emotions so perfectly to my heart that I just couldn’t stop. 

Russo‘s writing style is amazing. She brought so much life into these characters, even though you only read parts of their years instead of a continuing observation. This way, the book was quite short, but it was perfect.

Eric and Morgan are also just such a dream-team of a friends-to-lovers plot. They support each other, no matter how hard, and really are there for each other (in the end). 

To be honest, I wasn’t able to read every page - I skipped through them so that I wouldn’t reach a complete mental breakdown. 
But nevertheless, I recommend it more than anything to everybody (especially those, who need some sad-happy character development)!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, and Transphobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Grief, Drug use, Death of parent, and Deadnaming

Minor: Outing, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Blood

ivana's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring fast-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Vomit