Reviews

All the Water I've Seen Is Running by Elias Rodriques

culpeppper's review

challenging emotional funny 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

4.5

I really loved this book, and I plan to reread at another point with more attention to detail. It's emotional, but the pace of the story is so slow that you have time to process what is going on at the same time as Daniel. It's written in a challenging way, with no quotation marks and in vernacular, but I actually enjoyed how it slowed me down during conversations once I got used to it. There are loose ends in the story, since it's partly a story about loose ends, but the conclusion is still satisfying. I loved the final chapter, which are hard to nail. The only detractor for me is that sometimes, we spend too much time in the past that I've forgotten what Daniel is doing in the current moment and I would have to flip back to see what we were talking about. Ultimately this book is not for everyone, but it was for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Alcohol, Cursing, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Car accident, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Gun violence, Vomit, and Outing

Minor: Colonisation, War, Slavery, Ableism, and Religious bigotry

Much of the language spoken by characters is written in a vernacular that includes slurs and cursing regularly, though not always in a derogatory way. Their language, particularly as teenagers, includes misogyny, homophobia, and racism as typical for them. The primary focus of the story is centered around the death of a young woman in a car accident and the grief the main characters deal with in the aftermath. Abuse explaination:

Aspects of the narrarator's childhood include abuse at the hands of his father and older brother. It is relayed through memory.

etwomey's review

challenging reflective 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

2.5

Such an interesting portrayal of how live overlap and the people we always go back to 

alecccat's review

reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

jsrogers123's review

5.0

I AM SAD

avra_s's review

5.0

Really enjoyed this unique perspective and storytelling style

emilysquest's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

• 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

lilylikesbooks's review

3.0

3.5/5. I enjoyed this book a lot; the dialogue was really fresh and felt authentic. Loses half a star for two reasons: the build up to the “thing” that the main character felt so guilty about fell flat, and the narrative device used to bring in memories & stories his mom told him got repetitive

artisticdifferences_'s review

I didn’t enjoy the writing and felt like I was reading an incredibly dull internal monologue. There doesn’t seem to be any driven plot. It was just… bland

megand96's review

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

lnkov1's review

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes

2.25