Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

2 reviews

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

I had high hopes for this book but it just did not come together at all. None of the characters are fleshed out at all, which makes their drama (yes this book has a love triangle) very boring and many of them come off as ethnic stereotypes. In theory Nix's mother is a driving factor of the story but she's such a non-character they could have been looking for buried treasure with essentially the same effect. Nix is so reactive and never really seems to make choices; she's always being buffeted around by the narrative.

The author also makes the baffling decision to include no major Native characters, have her POV characters participate (with a small amount of reluctance) in what is essentially cultural genocide, and make the voice of Hawaii a white boy whose father is in the Hawaiian League. The way the Hawaiian culture is written about in this book as this thing that will inevitably die was disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, and Racism

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs

mrclaire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Racism