Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Promise by Damon Galgut

28 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Racism

Moderate: Infertility, Gun violence, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Infidelity

Minor: Eating disorder

kajasversion's review

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Truly a masterfully written story, the narrative transitioned from one character to another seamlessly and it was amazing to witness. The characters are all flawed, the burden of family and societal values destroying their relationships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder

james1star's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Grief, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, Suicide, Eating disorder, Murder, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Alcoholism

claalaaa's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Minor: Self harm

ginnydw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, and Mental illness

julia_rose's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gun violence, Infertility, Death, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism

geraldinerowe's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

For me, this book didn't live up to the hype. I found the writing style pretentious and gimmicky, and all the main characters unlikeable. I'm not sure whether you were supposed to like Amor, but I didn't. She claimed to want to keep her family's promise, but did almost nothing to try to achieve it apart from vaguely mentioning it in passing every ten years or so. But perhaps that's not what the book was about. The narrative seemed to suggest it was more about the family itself, and how the huge changes happening in South Africa at the time played into their story. It was fairly obvious from the titles of the four parts of the book, once you're a little way in, how the story will unfold, and there are no surprises, but Galgut is a compelling writer so it's less about the ending and more about getting there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Colonisation, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Infertility, Racism, and Gun violence

karol99's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Infidelity, Abandonment, Suicide, Sexism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Racism, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Colonisation

manonh90's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

I... didn't like this book. The writing style (jumping between perspectives even within sentences, the lack of quotation marks... ) really annoyed me and the story wasn't my cup of tea either: small-minded, unlikable people I couldn't care less about, who somehow reflect historical societal issues. Would have DNF'ed if I hadn't been reading it for book club. I'm also beginning to realise capital L-literary fiction might not be for me, not the Booker Prize winners in any case. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, War, Medical content, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Dementia, Eating disorder, and Vomit

Minor: Self harm and Sexual content

m4rtt4's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, and Violence