Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Dagarna med dig by Rosie Walsh, Ann Björkhem

25 reviews

vivisms_82's review against another edition

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

3.0

Boy (Eddie) meets girl (Sarah). They fall in love after a week then part ways with the promise to see each other again. Girl doesn't hear from boy again. She is baffled why and despite her friends' insistence she move on, she can't let it go. I think it should be noted that although this book does feature romance, it is more a book about grief and how we as humans are complex in how we cope or don't cope with it.

This book was not what I expected. I thought it would be more of a darker, more intriguing mystery than what the truth end up being. The book was fine; I thought most of it plausible and sincere to human behaviour.
The dialogue and angst between Sarah and her friends when Sarah finds herself accidentally pregnant when her best friend just had her last hope of becoming a mother taken away, was so well written.
However I struggled to empathise with parts of it due to it being (in my opinion) an overreaction that
Sarah's sister Hannah, wouldn't speak to her for 20 years for VERY ACCIDENTALLY AND UNINTENTIONALLY killing her best friend in an automobile accident (when she was 16/17). What makes it harder to swallow, is Hannah's harsh stance when the accident was her fault in the first place! She put Sarah in that awful position because Sarah wanted to save her from harm after she recklessly got in the car with a teenage buffoon! The townsfolk shunning Sarah seemed also over the top. Oh and don't get me started on the cold hard b**ch that is Eddie's mother. It is one thing to grieve, be angry and seek blame for your misery, HOWEVER Sarah is treated like she killed Eddie's sister maliciously in cold blood. I get the mix of feelings and unease but the terrible treatment of Sarah does not equate to the reality of what happened. I thought the burden of responsibility on Eddie to care and support his mother 24/7 was totally believable and I appreciated the accuracy of the relationship between adult children and unwell parents.
 

All in all not a terrible book but not a must-read either.

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maggies's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-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

4.0

A quick read, hugely emotional by the end. It took a bit longer than I would have liked to get past the whining about Eddie being gone and start learning new things, but the payoff was ultimately worth it.

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guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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


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maryconney's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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bsteel29's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

A story of love, loss, grief and forgiveness. 

Eddie and Sarah meet on a chance encounter. They end up spending seven wonderful days together until Eddie leaves for to go on holiday. They exchange numbers, social media and agree to keep in touch until his return. They reluctantly say goodbye and agree that they have started to fall in love. However, Sarah is unable to get hold of Eddie. Her friends think she's been ghosted but she knows deep down, there is more to this story. 

I found this a little slow at first but the book did pick up pace and kept my interest. A book that's better to be read in longer sittings and once you are a third of the way in, it's hard to put down! My heart broke for Sarah in places and I felt like I was going through the motions with her. A gripping read but a heavy read in places.

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livpaige93's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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jessalicemorris's review against another edition

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challenging 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? No

5.0


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strad78's review against another edition

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

2.5

This book is all over the place. I liked the premise and some parts were good and kept my attention, but it was all scattered and mixed with unnecessary side stories that didn’t add anything to main storyline. I’d have enjoyed it better if it had been shorter and more to the point.

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valilo's review against another edition

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

4.75


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emmiebee's review against another edition

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

4.0

Quick note about "it's complicated" to diversity there's definitely more diversity than some books. At no point did it seem to me like these characters were maligned or charicatures but I'd still hesitate to say yes.
To the review: like a lot of people I found the beginning slow. I actually tried to read this a couple of years ago and dropped it. But this time I tried it again and read it all past chapter 7 in one sitting. 
I think some of the reviews of the characters are harsh, I actually didn't have a hard time accepting what was happening: this is a woman who has dissociated through an entire marriage and the first time she's allowed herself to not only feel, but feel love and happiness and hope without the question of whether she deserves it, suddenly it all disappears. 
She goes a little crazy, it happens. 
It's not a perfect book, I got really frustrated when we suddenly switched viewpoints especially given the cliffhanger; it felt cheap. Especially since it's not the first time the author purposefully misled the audience. But it kept me going well past midnight to finish so I guess it worked. 
Most of the character growth actually happens off the page. I think that's probably what frustrated me the most about the Eddie chapters. 

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