Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

6 reviews

anawest's review

5.0

This was not a perfect book, but it had a perfect beginning and a perfect ending, and also most of it felt like someone was taking a meat cleaver to my insides and then laying them out on a table in a pretty table arrangement. Which is my ideal reading experience. Anyway, loved loved loved this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Medical trauma and Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts

readingpicnic's review

reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Interesting to see an unreliable narrator being held accountable for lying or misremembering the story. This was a very sad story filled with guilt and grief over the accidental death of a child when the two girls were four years old, which she never forgave herself for, so it was a little difficult to get through. The writing was very good though: "After they climbed out, clean again, her mother sprinkled talcum powder on the girl's body with such rich abundance that she felt like a special dessert." 
It was sad how doomed all the sapphic longings felt in this book, especially between Florence and Ruby, who were especially devastating in their inability to put a concrete name to their queer longing. The imagery of Florence unfolding and refolding her letter from Ruby for years made me physically ill. The story was a little disorienting at times when I would learn that a whole passage I had read never actually happened and was just imagined by Margaret. I would say that this book could fit into the weird girlhood genre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

temymm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Death, Child death, and Abandonment

belovedb33's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual assault, Child death, Body horror, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Self harm, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Child abuse, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Grief, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fatphobia

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Chouette is a book I think about quite regularly and I have a feeling Poor Deer will be the same! Dark, so sad, but also ultimately hopeful, Poor Deer imagines alternate memories and pasts and futures. It was interesting reading this right after Interesting Facts About Space, another new release where a young woman navigates childhood shame and false memories. The writing was so beautiful and often seeping with a kind of gross, dank undertone that lent to a dark fairytale feeling, I could so fully see and smell and feel this book. The ending didn’t fully land for me, but everything was so strong otherwise, it is a story with staying power.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Abandonment, and Mental illness

lyla's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

A really fresh and clever narrative structure - the epitome of unreliable narrator. I always love a child narrator, because it lays out the moral lessons with greater purity and innocence. A sad portrait of motherhood and family bonds, the book always leaves you wanting more from the characters in the way they behave and treat others. Definitely not a feel good novel, but an interesting premise and hugely reflective.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Death