Pensive and heartbreaking
349251
Intrigued from page 1. Amazingly well thought out. You really care for the characters and the outcomes. I'm sure this is a good reason why we won't learn what happened to Corey and the reunion with his daughter.

I will recommend this book to my friends. My husband is going to start reading it tonite.
582698
This is a heartbreaking story of lives damaged by domestic violence. The reader learns the hearts,  and feels the sorrows of the characters throughout the story, and learns how broken wings can be mended and soar again. I rarely reread a book, but this is one I believe I will return to. It's a story of heartbreak, shame and sadness that turns to show us that hope is never misguided - that those broken can become triumphant.
4444407
A beautifully written book that examines a single tragic event from the varied perspectives of three characters-a mother who was forever changed after the death of her husband and her two emotionally neglected, adult daughters.  When one daughter's suicide attempt fails,  the 3 women find themselves under the same roof again after years of intentional separation.  The circle has enlarged to include two children, young girls who have experienced the aftermath of the broken family.  They are brought to live with their grandmother during their mother's recovery.  Their presence breaks the silence and forces the small family to think through the past and how they each responded to the loss of a husband and father.  The prologue reveals a great secret that marks the beginning of destruction of their relationships.  The writing is good and there are passages that were so beautiful,  I highlighted to remember the phasing. This is a touching story of loss, forgiveness, sisters, sacrifice, misunderstandings and new beginnings.
1318626
This book was heartbreaking and real. The authors notes at the end broke me more than the book.
2874092
I think this is the saddest book I have ever read.  The fact that it is so well written only increases the emotional impact.  John Gunther, Jr., died of a brain tumor at the age of seventeen, two weeks after graduating from Deerfield Academy.  The book describes in detail his last fifteen months of life, which were characterized by a vast array of treatments and temporary rallies followed by the continuation of the inexorable decline toward inevitable death.  What mostly stands out, though, is Johnnys courage, intelligence, goodness, and determination to get everything he can out of whatever life is left to him.  Its an inspiring and moving story.

 The father and author, John Gunther, was a well-known journalist and chronicler of the world, but this book has had a more lasting impact than any of his popular accounts of various regions of the globe.  Gunther, who clearly loved his son, could easily have turned this into a story of parental suffering, loss, and grief.  But he resisted the temptation, focusing not on himself and Johnnys mother (they divorced in 1944), but on Johnny himself and his struggle.  The parents are at the center of an active, indefatigable support group, and they are almost beside themselves at times looking for new treatment possibilities, but the story is about Johnny.  There is no suspense about what is going to happenthe reader knows before opening the book that Johnny is going to diebut this only adds to the pathos of the book, much of which comes from the fact, as Johnnys mother Frances put it in her afterword essay, he was living and dying and being reborn all at the same time each day.  (This essay itself is an eloquent and heartbreaking coda from a devoted mother, eliciting faith and mystery.)

If I were a fast reader, I would have finished this book in one sitting.  I am not a fast reader, so it took me a few days.  But what days they were!  Such is the books emotional impact that it was almost impossible to put down, even as I was hesitant each time to go back for another emotional drubbing.  In describing his unorthodox record of the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, path-breaking photographer Richard Mosse referred to arts potential to represent narratives so painful that they exist beyond language.  Death Be Not Proud focuses microscopically on one such narrative, giving us a painfully intimate look at both the destruction worked by death, and the possibilities it opens for human goodness.  It is not a book that is the least bit friendly toward death, this cruel enemy which extinguished the life of a young man of great promise, but it does offer hope that deaths destruction need not be all-encompassing.  Something survives, and it remains to the living to ensure that the best of the life of the one who was taken is somehow preserved, honored, remembered.

Though it was published in 1949, Death Be Not Proud was still very popular when I was in high school, probably because Johnny was our age when he died.  I understand it remains a standard on high school reading lists today.  It is easy to see why, and this actually speaks well of young people in an age in which many complain (too much) about their allegedly short attention spans and their need to be entertained.  Though it can be quick reading, this is not light reading by any means.  It will reward whatever time it takes to read it, and will give emotional muscles a thorough workout in the process.
1895350
"Thirteen Reasons Why" is a haunting story. As I read it, I jotted down bullet points of the story for my own records, and realized what I was writing was the gist of the 13 'stories'... but what really matters isn't who each tape was about. Instead, it's more about Hannah's thoughts and how she interacts with her listeners in this one-sided and often gut-wrenching dialogue, as well as Clay's responses to her last words.

Gripping and beautiful throughout, I felt it captured Hannah's gradual but evident decline -- how these various events took a toll on her already fragile life. Her mindset and reactions to the world as it unfolded were tough to handle, with each of the 13 stories having a different level of impact, but it being about the overall message. I get that.

Oh, and then there's Clay's dialogue every few lines -- unreturned dialogue meant for Hannah but said to no one but the reader. It was also hard to read at times, mostly because what he said fit the mould of a "full" character, with his conflicting emotions fitting of a truly three-dimensional person who has thought so much over time about how he feels about this person; about this girl he knew but didn't really know. No one feels just one thing. As humans we're all over the map, and certainly Clay was too, and for good reason given Hannah's unwillingness to let people in. He was an odd protagonist because he didn't convey as much emotion as you'd expect -- he was more of a narrator with a few snippets of return dialogue now and then, rather than an emotional wreck. That's not a criticism as much as an observation, simply part of the structure Asher employed as this story's primary construct.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all, but it was a tough and rather powerful story to read. I'm almost sad that it didn't have some ridiculous Hollywood ending, but I knew it wouldn't. I just feel a lot of emotion for Hannah -- a person that only exists in text, and so I guess that means Asher succeeded in his message.

I tend to write my reviews literally minutes after finishing the book. In one way, it helps because it's fresh in my mind, and all the thoughts I felt while reading are right at the top of my head. On another, I haven't had time to let it all process. That may alter my perception of a book like this, because it's not light popcorn fare, but it is what it is. This book was heavily 'hyped up' for me, but it actually lived up to the hype. I think I'm easier to please than most readers (as I so rarely give out bad scores) but either way, I know when I like something, and I liked this.

There's a lot that can be said for the plot -- about shifting blame, reputations, high school politics, and the possible selfishness portrayed by its characters. I don't think I need to say any of that. It could be a hot button topic. I'd rather say that this books covers a lot in a short amount of time, and Asher conveys it all pretty poignantly through Hannah and Clay.

So I don't know how I feel about this book, except that I'm glad I read it, and I'm likely to read it again some day. The final few chapters really tore at me. I didn't cry. I don't cry reading books, but it still tore at me, especially her deep dark descent near the end. Wow.

So what more is there to say? This may be my most vague review to date, because I don't really "say" a lot. I guess, read it if you are interested in well written books that may be sad but leave you with a glimmer of hope. 9/10.
3914230
Elizabeth Marro takes an unflinching look at the real costs of war and our all-too-human willingness to impose separation rather than accept the full brunt of the pain we inflict. At first you may wish to avert your own gaze as well -- tragedy arrives early in these pages -- but by then it's too late to turn away.  You already care too much about these characters to abandon them. And so you join Ruth and Casey, two wary, damaged souls thrown together by fate, on a road trip you will never forget.  What begins in the trauma of a life shattered leads, in the end, to tentative steps toward healing and reconnection. Casualties pulls you in with a sharp, painful tug -- and then it holds you in its grip till the very last page.
256040
The memory of this book has been seared into my brain and quite honestly, I border on wishing that I had never read it at all. But there is a poignant, heartbreaking truth to be told. The details of Megan's memories of abuse are so harrowing that I often wondered if they were some morbid fictional account.  Please be mindful that this is a trigger inducing book for those individuals who have endured sexual abuse. But if you're brave enough to finish, you will encounter a remarkable journey of woman that attempts to come to terms with the abuse she literally survived, and how she managed to rejoin the fragmented pieces of her psyche that allowed her to cope.
4820458
This is a beautifully written and very painful memoir of a mother's loss of her daughter. It is always horrible to think of losing a child, even one who has suffered years from a debilitating illness. This author shares in a very few pages an entire life, a universe of love then loss. We each deal with loss differently, and I believe it helps to hear the stories of how others deal with loss. So in these pages, May you find not just a well written story but also peace.
1926382
Like Ethan Frome and Age of Innocence, Brideshead Revisited features sympathetic but heartbreakingly human protagonists, possessing both grace and flaws, placed in a setting rife with rigid societal/religious constraints and then forced to choose between societal/religious conformity or personal happiness. I keep hoping the protagonists will choose personal happiness, but they never do.

[WARNING: TONS OF SPOILERS!] This novel features a trio of perhaps the most charismatic and tragic protagonists in literary history: gay, tormented Sebestian Flyte, his beautiful sister Julia, and family friend Charles Ryder. In Age of Innocence, its the rigid constructs of society that eventually bruise and break the characters. In this outing, Catholicism is the wall against which each character, one after another, tragically dashes themselves: first, Sebestians father, trapped by Catholicism in a loveless marriage; next, his heartbreakingly fragile son Sebastian, trying desperately to repress his homosexuality; after that Julia, who tragically discovers her love for Charles after she has married another; and finally Charles who, though a non-believer, is swept up by the tide of Marchmont tragedy and himself broken.

All of which would have you thinking of this story as rampantly anti-Catholic, except that Waugh was himself a convert to Catholicism and, accordingly, ensures that each character, though deprived of earthly happiness, ultimately rescues their hope of ultimate grace. Even Charles, the skeptic and non-believer, has by the end of the tale begun to pray. Which, I suppose, is meant to provide consolation of a sort, though not enough to keep me from tearing up throughout the final chapters.

Provided you can deal with all the tragedy, theres much in this novel to admire and, yes, to love. The writing is gorgeous. The evocation of period is brilliant. And each of the three protagonists is hauntingly memorable  especially Sebestian, whose transformation from dazzlingly charismatic schoolboy to gentle but ravaged alcoholic adulthood is wholly riveting.

You know how some books don't seem particularly notable at the time but as the years pass you come gradually to comprehend their wisdom and insight? I have a feeling this is going to be one of those books, and that Waughs insights into faith, duty, loyalty, morality, beauty, friendship and love are destined to haunt me for years to come.
286873
Beautiful but heartbreaking. If I had to describe In the Shadow of Blackbirds as succinctly as possible, that would be it. So different from pretty much everything out right now and so lovely, both in writing and its story. Cat Winters deftly explores humanity and just how far we will go to survive, even at the expense of others. It's a sad reality to face, but one that's important and not often explored in young adult literature. I don't think I can recommend this book enough.

I just have to mention that this is definitely a book worth reading in print form. I had an egalley, but won a print copy before I began reading, so I read the physical book. I compared the two, and the digital version just can't hold a candle to the beauty of this book. There are so many details on the pages and the photographs that just look better in the book. I don't think reading a digital version ruins the story, but your experience is definitely enriched.

What works best in In the Shadow of Blackbirds is the stark description of the people's state at that time. Mary Shelley visits a Red Cross ward, where soldiers are healing after being injured in the war, and she sees men who've not only lost limbs, but they've lost their spirit. We can't help but wonder at the real cost of our liberty, and who pays that price. Each person, when they leave home, dons a flu mask to prevent germs from getting to them. They chew onion gum and put bags of moth balls around their necks. Fear makes people not human, in a way, and this is shown so well. This all adds to the feel of the book, but it works even better to make it pack a punch to the reader. Also, without this setting, Mary Shelley and Stephen's story would've lacked immediacy and felt like any other book.

This is not a feel good, happy kind of romantic book. Yes, Mary Shelley and Stephen have a beautiful, honest, sweet relationship, but if you're looking for a happy ending, don't look here. The dark world presented is not one that gave a lot of happy endings like we've come to expect. But, we can leave with hope, something even better. Even in the darkest and most trying of times, one can always see a ray of hope and take comfort in the wells of strength in characters like Mary Shelley Black.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
1657104
Beautiful, heartbreaking story.  I couldn't put it down.
4550339
Devlin's book is haunting.  A mother's terminal cancer diagnosis puts her three daughters on edge as they try to cope with the illness and their own feelings.  The story takes many unexpected twists and turns, drawing you deeper into the suffering of middle daughter Vanessa, her sisters, and her father too.  It is a very thought-provoking book about parental love and loss, and finding yourself.  The themes are serious and there are references to sex, although it is not key to the story.  I'd recommend for mature teens only.
1347260
It is rare for me to put a book down and walk away once I start reading it. But it this case I had to. Not because anything was wrong with the book but because it tore my heart apart and I needed time to think. This is a story that is both gripping and devastating. To be witness to this harsh, cruel and unjust physical and emotional abuse was almost more than I could stand. But I read it because it is an important story that needs to be told.

Other reviews have told the story very well so there is no need for me to do that. What I would like to talk about is how it is written.

As a first person novel, from the viewpoint of a five year old boy, this is an amazing read. For any story that is written first person there are so many hurdles to cross to make the story believable and clean especially when it is a novel for an adult reader. Yet, the author made this leap look easy. The reader is easily transported into the mind of a five year old boy.

We can feel his pain, anxiety and heartbreak as he is so emotionally abused that he believes he is the cause of his own abuse. That he, somehow, just by being born, deserves to have medicine forced down his throat to the point where he vomits it up. His bed, a cardboard pallet on the floor, is more than he should expect for a child who is unwanted. But even worse, alone at night, with only Mr. Ted as his companion, the bad man comes and does things that we do not even talk about in society.

The only person who seems to care about this sad little boy is his grandmother. While she tries to do things to help, I wonder if she is unaware or unwilling to interfere in a way that will make a difference. Who is this woman who is so blinded to the real truth?

What makes this so sad is that this story even needs to be written. But it does.

In a few days I will be host to my daughter and her two sons. I will watch a loving and fiercely protective mother nourish, care for and play with the boys she adores. The contrast will be striking. I thank the heavens for that.

Karen Bryant Doering,
Parents' Little Black Book
3580335
This is a beautiful and heart-breakingly sad novel about loss, healing, friendship, and redemption. The book opens shortly after the death of an 11-year-old boy (he remains unnamed throughout the novel) who had been assisting 104-year-old Ona with household chores as a way to earn a merit badge. The boy has died of a rare (one-in-a-million) heart defect. He and Ona had become friends. The boys father, Quinn, who is divorced from his mother, commits to finishing the boys chores for Ona. Quinn was a distant father who felt he never connected with his son, who was a little bit different from other boys. Though the boy has already died when the book opens, the reader gets to know him through flashbacks of his interactions with Ona and his parents. He was so sweet and earnest, you really feel the terrible loss and unfairness of it. Quinn and Ona eventually form a bond and Quinn grows to know and love his son through this woman who connects them. Caring for Ona also allows Quinn to find his humanity. Though there is much grief in the book due to the underlying tragedy that leads to Onas reawakening and Quinn's redemption, the book is also life-affirming and full of warmth. There is a passage at the end of the book of the boys thoughts and feelings in his last moments and it is devastating, but it also tenderly shows that Quinns disconnect with the boy was not as strong as he believed; it is extremely affecting.
4626206
Have your box of tissues ready.  This is a sad story of one young boy who needs a liver transplant and the problems and obstacles both he and his parents face.  When nine year Ethan is diagnosed, his mother Delanie is overwhelmed and is soon also dealing with a distracted husband, a mound of bills, overbearing mother-in-law and more.  She does have a tight knit group of friends whom she can lay her burden on. But as time is dwindling, one wonders if Ethan will survive?  Like I mentioned, this one is a tearjerker and emotional.  As the reader, I can feel her pain and frustrations with doctors and social workers.  I received an ARC from the author and do recommend this book.
4914141
The story of Dylan was heartbreaking, thought provoking and beautiful.  There was intense insight into the mind of an addict.  Many of the things written about Dylan's thoughts and his recovery protocol were eye opening.  It is so sad on so many levels, that not everyone who suffers through addiction can't have the same quality of help, both professionally and personally, that Dylan experienced.
This was a love story.  A story of friendship, devotion and faith.  Faith in the belief that we are all worth someone's love.  But first and foremost, the belief that each of us are worthy of that faith and love.