angelayoung's reviews
334 reviews

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

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Did not finish book.
I couldn't bear reading the parts that featured the white supremacist thug ... I probably should have perservered ... but he was such an ugly insensitive character I didn't believe he'd ever change.
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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

If you believe - as I do - that novels can help heal us, The Book Swap is a novel for you. Through novels the protagonists heal themselves and each other and make their readers believe in the power of hope and love, of finding your path and living well again. Magic.
Open Throat by Henry Hoke

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Open Throat is a dream (and sometimes a nightmare) from the point of view of someone you'll never be. But his loneliness, his hunger, his acute observations of humans and his desire to both save and destroy us is poignant ... .
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

If you love meandering storytelling that also pushes you along like the swell of a tide in a river, read Once upon a River. I LOVED it - it's one of those novels where you slow down towards the end because you don't want it to end. Setterfield is a born storyteller. I wish I was just starting Once upon a RIver ... if you haven't read it you've got a treat in store.
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

Beloved by Toni Morrison

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.0

Winter People by Gráinne Murphy

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

4.0

The Almost Truth by Anne Hamilton

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

4.0

Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

5.0

Small Worlds is a poem of a novel. Caleb Azumah Nelson's language flows and repeats and circles and dances and loops back on itself and sometimes resolves, before it curls out in a new direction, just like the jazz music and musicians and improvisations and the dancing he so lyrically writes about. It's full of beautiful melancholy (as he describes The Roots's Things Fall Apart). It's full of love, feeling, disappointment, sorrow, remembering and forgetting, loss, death and healing. And it's full of wisdom. Here are a few of my favourites (but there are many):   
Anger is just love in another body.
and
Since the one thing which might solve our problems is dancing ... .
and
A visitor in my own language.
and
I'm trying  desperately to avoid the shadow of grief, wanting to walk in the brightness of her spirit.
and
While grief is never over, we find a way to walk in the light someone has left behind. (Or, as I relayed it to a friend, not quite remembering it: Grief is always with us, but there are times when we walk in the light of the person who died, not always in their shadow ... .'
and last but not least:
Maybe this is all we need sometimes, for someone else to believe in the possibilities you see for yourself.