Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Promise

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Promise by Damon Galgut

14 reviews

kerrence30's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Extremely well written and strangely enjoyable despite the main theme of death.
I particularly enjoyed the style of using the deaths of each character as a way of developing the plot. The character study of each member of the family is so well done, that despite some of them being particularly awful, the reader still finds them fascinating.
The description of the political situation in South Africa over time is necessary, particularly as someone from Britain born after Apartheid. The voices and opinions of the various characters from different backgrounds, owning differing political views, change over time and reflect the changing general opinions of those living in the country.
Thoroughly enjoyed, and shows how there is no main character in life, we are all just play a part.

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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julia_rose's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

The most 5 star book I’ve ever 5-starred. This is a very special book. Exquisite prose without being pretentious. Complex characters you love and hate (except Amor and Salome who are angels) who evolve masterfully. Extremely visual, it’s rare that a book transports me to another world. Emotional but not corny and still has the odd light-hearted moment which is hard to inject into such a dark story.

I appreciated how Lukas still scolded Amor at the end so it didn’t become just another “white saviour book.

Seamlessly floated between all the characters’ heads, expert narration. Just beautiful. A beautiful beautiful book.

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karol99's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

The writing was excellent; very compelling and beautiful, though it also felt pretentious at times and kept the characters at a distance. Going into the book I expected to like it a lot more than I actually ended up doing, as the premise sounded very interesting but the book ended up being very little about 'the promise' that even its name suggests. Social justice and diverse perspectives were what I expected, but instead I got rather boring relationships and white guilt and no actual action for anything. I really wanted to immerse myself in the story, and even though the sentences were beautiful, they did not manage to evoke anything in me and it was hard to concentrate on something that felt like it was purposefully keeping me away. The writing surely deserves the Booker price, but the story itself fell quite flat.

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