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tysuckz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Having said that this story is so touching and feels so real. The depth or research the author must have put into this is insane. Devastating through and through.
You really feel for Stella throughout the whole novel & can't help but hate her and love her all the same. She is tough, maybe too tough, but she is a good person at heart. She lived a hard life and she never stopped being the person she was, even after the accident.
It is intense though, especially with descriptions of abuse, rape & sexual assault. For that reason I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but its definitely worth the read if that's not a trigger for you!
Graphic: Rape, Child death, Pedophilia, Dementia, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Miscarriage, and War
inthedark's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Excrement, Rape, and Racism
byoung1997's review
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Grief, War, Rape, Pregnancy, and Medical trauma
isadora_lemos's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Incest, and Rape
Minor: Racism
seawarrior's review
- 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
3.0
While this story is fictional, it is written with so much detail and winding family mythologies that it feels real. My favorite part of the book was imagining Stella's nature-rich and independent life in Ievoli, but I felt the chapters about her young adulthood dragged on to the point of frustration, and the story of her adulthood was surprisingly brief. However, this briefness may have been an intentional decision to illustrate her loss of passion for life. I don't doubt that there are many women who lived pieces of Stella's story, and intimately know its pain. The Fortuna women were courageous, capable characters with varied strengths. Yet the world reduced them to property of their fathers and husbands, a fate which Stella desperately tried to escape but had no means to. I'm not sure I would recommend this book to others. While it is a beautifully written and honest portrait of Stella the survivor, her adulthood is so dismal that I questioned why I was putting myself through envisioning these moments in her life at all. I leave the book wondering "What was the point?" Yet as Grames states through her narrator, "of course there never is any point, but until you think that thought for the first time it doesn’t matter that there isn’t".
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death of parent, Racism, Xenophobia, Death, Drug abuse, and War
hollyway's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Homophobia, and Racism
kbergsten's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Excrement and Vomit