Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

122 reviews

n_degeorgia's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

heart breaking, fascinating, well written

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Hate crime

Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, and Death of parent

katiechasingchapters's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Violence, and Child death

chloewakham's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is a beautiful tale of a family growing together in the most difficult of circumstances. Elsa's resilience in the face of everything she encounters makes for a moving story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Child death

themdash's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Sexism, Death, Animal death, Police brutality, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, Grief, and Religious bigotry

astoriareader's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

• It is the 1920s in a small farming community in the Texas Panhandle. Elsa Martinelli grew up in a wealthy family, who never appreciated her & make her feel hard to love. At age 25, she hooks up with Rafe, and she winds up pregnant. They get married, and she moves in with Rafe and his parents, Rosa and Tony, on their farm. 
• Fast forward, it is 1930s. Along the stock market crash & The Great Depression, there are also several years of drought and The Dust Bowl. Elsa has two kids now, Ant & Lareda, and with no end in sight to the dust storms, Elsa abandon their home and flee to California where they hope work and a better life await. The book details what happens when the family arrives in California. 

MY THOUGHTS

• As my first read of 2024, I wanted to start off with a book by one of my favorite authors. This marks the fourth book I’ve read by Hannah, with the others being: The Great Alone, The Women, The Nightingale.
• Hannah is an expert at character development & writing strong female characters. I always learn something when reading her historical fictions. In this one, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about the Dust Bowl & migrants.
• I thoroughly enjoyed the bonds that develop among the characters in the book, and the imagery and vivid descriptions of the surroundings were also very well done.
• It is definitely a sweeping story, and it is a hard one to read.
• My only complaint about the book is all the characters were white, and I would have enjoyed different perspectives about the experiences of BIPOC folks.
• Kudos to Hannah for clearly spending a lot of time researching the era & the topics covered in the book.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️historical fiction with strong women as main characters. time period: Dust Bowl.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Grief, Animal death, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Chronic illness

sarahfeller's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Sexism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Medical content, Police brutality, Excrement, and Miscarriage

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

crabbytaco's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Police brutality, Abandonment, and Animal death

Minor: Murder and Deportation

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I always knew from the name of the period that the Great Depression was a very hard time but wow this book took on that and tripled it. 

Elsa Martinelli life had never been one of joy but when the 30’s hit her life on the dust bowl turn devastating. The farm is failing, her husband is a drunk and the land is killing the crops, animals and her children. She must make a decision to attempt to save them. 

This novel depicts the physical, mental and emotional struggle of one family in the depression. Told in a duel point of view of mother and daughter it is a beautiful tale of heartache, determination and fear. 

The imagery makes you taste and feel the dry heat and dust. You really are transported to the time. 

It also highlights how easily human nature can attack an outsider or newcomer and how easy people can take on the “Us and Them” mentality to justify cruelty and injustice. 

Warning I did tear up a couple of times so be aware if reading in public. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Bullying

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Grief, Animal death, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Violence

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

This is an emotional story. A historical fiction. It's about a challenging lifestyle during a horrible time in history. Elsa is a frail woman or at least thats what her parents have beaten into her. She will never marry, have children, or have a job. At age twenty-five, Elsa starts to rebel against what she's been told. She meets Rafe and gets pregnant. They get married and live with his family on their farm. Elsa's happiness is short lived. When the dust storms take over Texas, Elsa has to decide how to save her family. Do they stay in Texas and fight for their land or do they head to California (The land of milk and honey)not knowing what waits for them? The relationship between Elsa and Loreda(Elsa's daughter)is one filled with turmoil. They love each other and want what's best for their family. They both have different ideas of how to get it. I enjoyed the writing on both sides of their relationship. I thought Elsa was doing what she thought was best from her past experiences and Lareda is young and full of life. She's ready to fight injustice not realizing what she will have to sacrifice to get what she wants. Laredo is whiny at times and I  would have liked about fifty to a hundred pages less. I  don't think we needed everything that was written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Body shaming

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Child death, and Animal death

Minor: Medical trauma, Medical content, Police brutality, and Sexual content