Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

39 reviews

ktdakotareads's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Child death

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova was my favorite kind of coming-of-age story, the ones that dig into family history and pass ancestral gifts or knowledge to the younger generation.  This one had a touch of mystery and magical realism, which is icing on the cake for me.  

 

In this story we meet Orquídea, the matriarch of the Montoya family who does not leave the family home and is full of unanswered questions.  She invites her family to the home for her transition to the afterlife and their inheritance, which kicks off the unusual events and the start of getting to know the next two generations in the family.  

 

The story is full of family banter as they decipher Orquídea’s cryptic messages, make sense of their supernatural abilities, and seek answers in Ecuador.  The mystery unfolds in dual timelines to bring together the matriarch’s life story and pass the inheritance on to her loved ones. 

 

At times it read a little YA, but I didn’t mind since that is a genre I really enjoy.  The story was well done and the writing held my attention.  The magic was sprinkled in and part of everyday life, differentiating it from a full-on fantasy novel.  I am so glad I came across this in Libby and recommend it for those who enjoy multi-generational stories of ancestral powers with a hint of supernatural elements. 

 

Content warnings: Death, Infidelity, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, and Grief

awebofstories's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Grief

thewildmageslibrary's review

4.0

This story was really intriguing! I had no expectations going in and it really caught me up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Child death, Racism, Pregnancy, Stalking, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Animal death

midnightgremlin's review

challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Infidelity

Moderate: Child death

amberinpieces's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Cursing, Blood, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child death, Stalking, Death of parent, and Death

archaicgambit's review

emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

The people giving this book bellow 3 stars seem to largely not understand magical realism. I think if you are excited to start the genre and understand what you’re getting into you’ll have a great time. 

I loved the big cast and the interweaving stories, the vivid language and imagery.

There are a surprising amount of typos but this is a 2021 release so I think some books got the short end of the stick in all that chaos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Racism

leannanecdote's review

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Drug use, and Cursing

vshah's review

adventurous mysterious tense 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? No

4.5

If you liked Encanto or liked the idea of Encanto but were left wanting more, this is the book for you. The Montoya family is intriguing, complicated, and relatable. They fight and come back together for each other in a way that is a believable and very realistic, even with the elements of magic and mystery that drive the plot. The flashbacks of Orquidea’s past and the Montoya’s discovering their magic paralleled each other in a very interesting way, and as a reader it was really satisfying to try to put the pieces together along with the Montoyas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual content, Grief, Death, Gore, and Stalking

brokenbodybitch's review against another edition

4.5

low spoon review;

• i liked the way the magical realism was done; it was not only interesting but I think done well/realistically?
• ^ add on kinda; I liked the elements of the flowers and the way those hinted at what was going on 
• the family dynamics were super interesting; the 'current' generation of the family was a hot mess, and in the best way it was very much the -big wealthy family with the inheritance holder who is kinda pissing everyone off- vibes
  the story line with her husbands was interesting but I have to admit it did start to seem like just a lot was going on when the stuff with the star and the 'ring master' dude father story line was going on, again done well but like...it was a lot of things at once
• it does have a circus in it though and to my knowledge it was done pretty tastefully but, I am not educated enough on the history of the circus and mistreatment of people [specifically disabled people] to have a valid comment on how it was done [I know some things but not enough to be confident in how it was done] - although there was one comment about a 'circus oddity', in this case it was referring to a  magical being so 🤷🏼 I don't know
• the pacing was a little funky for me but that is mostly preference; it jumps back and forth between POV kind and time lines so it was a bit confusing at times but, if you normally don't struggle with this it will not be an issue, because for how much it jumped... it wasn't that bad  

my content warnings are not thorough as so much happened, I can guarantee I'm prob missing a few  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Confinement, Infidelity, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Fire/Fire injury

circus? I have heard of mis treatment of people - specifically disabled people because of the circus and I am not educated enough on the history that to know if it was ok or not - there was one comment about a 'circus oddity', although in this case it happened to be referring to a magical being so 🤷🏼 I don't know