Review by xxqueenforadayxx -- Geraldine
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xxqueenforadayxx
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Review by xxqueenforadayxx -- Geraldine
[Following is a volunteer review of "Geraldine" by Edmund M Aristone.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Written through the eyes of a man named Tom, this is the story of how he struggles to get his life back together after being suspended in his last year of medical residency. He now is bartending and lives in what he describes as "the dirty, sluggish streets" of Philadelphia, New Jersey. Meanwhile Geraldine, who is a young artist, also struggles because of a bipolar disorder she has. She is faced with the impossible decision of becoming an amazing painter or continuing her medication to avoid meeting the same fate as her mother. Though they live in opposite worlds, they form a fast paced romance and Tom worries how he might not be able to help save Geraldine from herself. While Geraldine worries that Tom will give up his own life focusing too much on helping her and that she might be the one who destroys Tom. Will Tom be able to turn his life back around and continue his promising medical career? Also how can Geraldine be the fantastic painter she is when her medications interfere with her artistic ability? The best question for this romantic novel is how will two people whose lives seem to be falling tragically apart be able to create one together?
Geraldine by Edmund M Aristone is only 161 pages total so I was able to finish reading it within the same day of receiving it. Though it is short I did not find it a waste of my time. I rate it 2 out of 4 stars because even though it was well written and I did enjoy reading it, it is not something that I believe I will ever reread again. I would recommend this book to some people, just not very many, as it was just too rushed along for my liking. I would also only recommend this book to people who enjoy shorter stories that only focus on the main details needed to get a story across; rather then reading about all of the small things that happen in the background. For example instead of saying that someone and a friend go to stay in a fancy hotel suite for a few days, it would have been better if it walked us through what happened there. Some important characters that are considered a heavy influence in their life are also gone almost as fast as they are introduced. I would have liked more stories of them hanging out together or the adventures they shared that brought them so close together. For the simple fact this could have been dragged out far longer, perhaps even turned into two books as good as it is, I took off one star.
As expected from an author who lived in the number one murder city in the country, this book can be found a bit dark. It has happy moments that I found myself smiling from time to time while reading. It just focuses more on the depressing side of life with deaths, depression, and the harsh realities of living with a mental illness. If looking for something filled with sunshine and happiness the whole time then this may not be the best book to open. I found that it all came together to make the book seem more relatable and realistic though as life is not always rainbows or butterflies. I am sure everyone goes through at least one dark period in their lives where they struggle with everything and are not sure if they will be able to fix any of it. Some parts I did find a bit extreme but crazy things happen in life all the time so even those moments were still realistic.
While I would not recommend it to a lot of people, I did enjoy reading it. I found a few errors but not nearly enough to turn me away from it. Just enough that another star had to be dropped for it is not that long of a book for as many errors as I found. I enjoyed how well written and descriptive it could be the most because I did not have a hard time trying to understand anything. Everything still flows together wonderfully despite how spread out it all is. There could have been a bit more mystery and details gone into the dramatic parts so I could really feel as if I were there myself and not just reading about it. The characters are described well and there were even some that I really liked, that I was almost able to connect with even, if not for the rushing. The author did do well at getting a character's personality across and adding their distinctive features therefore making them seem very realistic. Also, though I do enjoy steamy romantic scenes, I found myself not minding there are none in this book. The word "sex" is mentioned a few times, but rarely and with no other details about it. There is a good use of profanity though, even as early on as the first chapter. A lot of scenes take place in a few different bars and none of these characters are afraid of drinking so profanity is used pretty often.
What I disliked the most about this book was just that I found it to be very rushed. A lot of things happen very quickly, and a lot of time passes in between the paragraghs/chapters. I wish it were longer and there were characters that I wish I could have seen more of. Instead of stating that two people became close friends, I was hoping that it showed more stories and scenes of how they became close friends. That the story was told more day by day instead of what happened in the past few months within a chapter or two. It just made it where I was always aware that I was only reading about everything, when I would have like to be sucked in. To feel as if I was there and these were my friends or my life even.
Overall, I found this book to be an interesting read if nothing else. I do not regret picking it nor do I feel like I wasted any of my time on it. It was written well, interesting, and had some relatable parts that made reading it rather easy; not a chore. I enjoyed it enough to wish that there was more of it to make it come along more smoothly. I could have gotten pretty attatched and would have put it on my personal list of books worth rereading sometime if so. If looking for something a bit different then the usual, generic love story; and you do not mind the profanity or the darker side of things, then it's definitely worth the read.
******
Geraldine
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
2 out of 4 stars
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Written through the eyes of a man named Tom, this is the story of how he struggles to get his life back together after being suspended in his last year of medical residency. He now is bartending and lives in what he describes as "the dirty, sluggish streets" of Philadelphia, New Jersey. Meanwhile Geraldine, who is a young artist, also struggles because of a bipolar disorder she has. She is faced with the impossible decision of becoming an amazing painter or continuing her medication to avoid meeting the same fate as her mother. Though they live in opposite worlds, they form a fast paced romance and Tom worries how he might not be able to help save Geraldine from herself. While Geraldine worries that Tom will give up his own life focusing too much on helping her and that she might be the one who destroys Tom. Will Tom be able to turn his life back around and continue his promising medical career? Also how can Geraldine be the fantastic painter she is when her medications interfere with her artistic ability? The best question for this romantic novel is how will two people whose lives seem to be falling tragically apart be able to create one together?
Geraldine by Edmund M Aristone is only 161 pages total so I was able to finish reading it within the same day of receiving it. Though it is short I did not find it a waste of my time. I rate it 2 out of 4 stars because even though it was well written and I did enjoy reading it, it is not something that I believe I will ever reread again. I would recommend this book to some people, just not very many, as it was just too rushed along for my liking. I would also only recommend this book to people who enjoy shorter stories that only focus on the main details needed to get a story across; rather then reading about all of the small things that happen in the background. For example instead of saying that someone and a friend go to stay in a fancy hotel suite for a few days, it would have been better if it walked us through what happened there. Some important characters that are considered a heavy influence in their life are also gone almost as fast as they are introduced. I would have liked more stories of them hanging out together or the adventures they shared that brought them so close together. For the simple fact this could have been dragged out far longer, perhaps even turned into two books as good as it is, I took off one star.
As expected from an author who lived in the number one murder city in the country, this book can be found a bit dark. It has happy moments that I found myself smiling from time to time while reading. It just focuses more on the depressing side of life with deaths, depression, and the harsh realities of living with a mental illness. If looking for something filled with sunshine and happiness the whole time then this may not be the best book to open. I found that it all came together to make the book seem more relatable and realistic though as life is not always rainbows or butterflies. I am sure everyone goes through at least one dark period in their lives where they struggle with everything and are not sure if they will be able to fix any of it. Some parts I did find a bit extreme but crazy things happen in life all the time so even those moments were still realistic.
While I would not recommend it to a lot of people, I did enjoy reading it. I found a few errors but not nearly enough to turn me away from it. Just enough that another star had to be dropped for it is not that long of a book for as many errors as I found. I enjoyed how well written and descriptive it could be the most because I did not have a hard time trying to understand anything. Everything still flows together wonderfully despite how spread out it all is. There could have been a bit more mystery and details gone into the dramatic parts so I could really feel as if I were there myself and not just reading about it. The characters are described well and there were even some that I really liked, that I was almost able to connect with even, if not for the rushing. The author did do well at getting a character's personality across and adding their distinctive features therefore making them seem very realistic. Also, though I do enjoy steamy romantic scenes, I found myself not minding there are none in this book. The word "sex" is mentioned a few times, but rarely and with no other details about it. There is a good use of profanity though, even as early on as the first chapter. A lot of scenes take place in a few different bars and none of these characters are afraid of drinking so profanity is used pretty often.
What I disliked the most about this book was just that I found it to be very rushed. A lot of things happen very quickly, and a lot of time passes in between the paragraghs/chapters. I wish it were longer and there were characters that I wish I could have seen more of. Instead of stating that two people became close friends, I was hoping that it showed more stories and scenes of how they became close friends. That the story was told more day by day instead of what happened in the past few months within a chapter or two. It just made it where I was always aware that I was only reading about everything, when I would have like to be sucked in. To feel as if I was there and these were my friends or my life even.
Overall, I found this book to be an interesting read if nothing else. I do not regret picking it nor do I feel like I wasted any of my time on it. It was written well, interesting, and had some relatable parts that made reading it rather easy; not a chore. I enjoyed it enough to wish that there was more of it to make it come along more smoothly. I could have gotten pretty attatched and would have put it on my personal list of books worth rereading sometime if so. If looking for something a bit different then the usual, generic love story; and you do not mind the profanity or the darker side of things, then it's definitely worth the read.
******
Geraldine
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
If life ain't just a joke, then why am I laughing?
Latest Review: Masters and Bastards by Christopher J. Penington
