Reviews tagging 'Grief'

All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle

27 reviews

mj_j's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I was really taken with the characters and the developing relationships.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia

Minor: Vomit, Car accident

christinefitz's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

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Mike Gayle has delighted me again with a sweet but sometimes painful story that had me gasping (more than once). Another pandemic novel, Gayle examines loneliness through 82-year-old Jamaican immigrant Hubert. He’s on a quest to prove to his daughter that he’s got plenty of friends and she shouldn’t worry about him from Australia. Alternating flashback chapters give Hubert’s present circumstances a deeper poignancy. As all my favorites do, this novel turns a group of trauma-inflicted misfits into a real community. A great examination of relationships and aging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Abortion

annerlee's review against another edition

3.0

hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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A good background read on audiobook. There were a few surprises but the book mainly told the story of an ‘ordinary’ life and the life story of a young man who moves from Jamaica to London after the war, his challenges and how connection and community ebb and flow throughout his life. 

What I enjoyed:
 I enjoyed the narrator’s gravely voice and Jamaican lilt. A welsh accent was also passable. I also liked the descriptions of his Jamaican home which were such a contrast to the often grey, cold experiences of England.

The narrator added dimensions that would have been lost to me in print. I doubt I would have finished the book in print.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief

readingwithkt's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional 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: Complicated

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Mike Gayle strikes again! I really enjoyed this heartfelt story, filled with Gayle's characteristic warmth and emotional intrigue. 

In All the Lonely People we follow Hubert Bird as he comes to terms with the fact that he is lonely and works to form a support for other lonely people in his local community. It all starts with a visit from his new next door neighbour and her young daughter. The two push themselves into Hubert's world, and slowly into his heart too. Meanwhile his quiet existence is upended as he starts to engage with his neighbours, his community, and ultimately the truth of his own story.

I really loved Hubert, his neighbors, and the story that came to pass between them. I listened to the bulk of his story on audiobook but switched to digital for the final 20 or so %. The audiobook really brought the story to life and I enjoyed that reading experience very much. Would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief

Please note that there are a lot of content warnings which could come with this book. I labelled this review with a few but due to time passed since I finished reading, I'm certain I haven't caught them all and would encourage readers to do their own research on this.

dirrtydeenyul's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Wow. This book is so beautiful. Start to finish I was locked in. I gasped, I cried, I questioned everything. This story is thought provoking and a great reminder to hold your people close and to love your neighbor. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Racism, Dementia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Grief, Alcohol

Minor: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.0

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Group of lonely misfits turned found family waged war against loneliness and Hubert Bird comes to grips with his past. I really enjoyed the beginning half of the book, but the ending fell a little flat for me. The main conflict of the book was not exactly resolved, it was sort of dissolved, which meant there was no payoff for the tension, which didn’t work for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dementia, Death of parent, Classism

Minor: Fatphobia

heartofhorrors's review against another edition

3.0

challenging emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Grief, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol

m_liz's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief

Moderate: Dementia

spaghettireads's review against another edition

4.75

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Car accident

Minor: Infertility

amandadelbrocco's review against another edition

3.5

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Overall enjoyed but it was incredibly similar in plot development to A Man Called Ove and that's all I could think about while reading. I think some of the topics weren't discussed as deeply as they could have been and some of it was very surface level and repetitive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Grief

Moderate: Addiction