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Reviews tagging 'Death'

I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore

20 reviews

kers_tin's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.25

This was a bizarre and unnerving meditation on grief while also being a time capsule of 2016. This transported me and I wasn't sure where it was going to go or what was real but I'm sure that's the point. Loved the writing.
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jillisonline's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

A24 better turn this into a movie
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njean927's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

2.0

I kept expecting this book to find itself, but never felt like it came together. Everything seemed disjointed and not in a way that caused introspection, just in a way that I found annoying. 
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barfbabe's review against another edition

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

4.0

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rasy's review against another edition

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

3.5

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

3.25

 I am Homeless if This is Not my Home opens with a letter from Elizabeth to her sister, written in the years prior to the Civil War. It then switches to the present when Finn is visiting his terminally ill brother Max in a hospice in New York. Following a phone call he races off to Chicago to because of a crisis with his ex-girlfriend Lily. They then undertake a really strange road trip. I appreciated Moore’s writing at the sentence level and her exploration of themes like love, life, family, grief and mental health. But overall this book was too absurdist for my taste and the three parts never satisfactorily came together. I wanted more Finn and Max.
 
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joannalouise's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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funktious's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-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

3.5

A strange, sad book this. Not at all what I expected. An interesting meditation on death and grief, with virtually no plot, beautiful prose but ultimately, too much decomposition for me to really enjoy - it just activated my body horror ick.

I really enjoyed the 19th century sections and would have liked more of those.

Desire, of course, on my part has been shooed away by the Lord. Though sometimes I think I see it, raggedy, out back among the mossy pavers, like a child cutting across yards to get to school. One sees a darting through the gum trees and hickories that have come back from the winter's scorching freeze. Oh, yes, I say to the darting thing, the fluff of a dandelion clock or a milkweed puff: I sort of remember you.

Also an excellent road trip narrative, decomposition aside.

Though they were moving forward down the moody road, the road seemed instead to be rushing toward them, so that they were like needles being threaded.
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pomoevareads's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-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

4.0

I am Homeless if this is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore is my 5th book read by this author. It took me a little while to get into the hazy quality of it but once I was on the road trip with Finn and his ex Lily, I found myself haunted by the beautiful imagery and thoughtful ideas. 

This is a different kind of novel about dying and grief than is often portrayed and while the death of one of the characters was quite traumatic and possibly triggering for some, there was beauty portrayed in death at the same time. Who is death for, the deceased or the living? This and several other theories are put forth. 

This is a difficult book to describe but think of it as a road trip with a ghost in the making. 

Thank you to @penguinrandomca and @netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions. I am Homeless if this is Not My home comes out June 20, 2023.
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caseythereader's review against another edition

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

1.5

Wtf was the point of that?

Thanks AAKnopf for the free advance copy of this book. 
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