Reviews

Joan by Katherine J. Chen

liz_carpenter's review

I just couldn’t get into it. It’s not a bad book by any means, just not my type of read.

ljp817's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

leilamaarit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

the start was a bit slow but then it became a page turner, a perfect retelling of joan’s sudden rise and fall i feel 

bubbly_book's review

slow-paced

2.5

careymcd1's review against another edition

informative sad tense medium-paced

3.0

bookswithjosie's review

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.25

DNF- sterren voor begin over haar jeugd. daarna niet door heen te komen.

mayav_p's review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

semperlunaris's review

emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, War, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Rape

jools_cope's review

DNF due to how slow and uneventful I found the book.

harveyhorse321's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Initially I found it hard to get into because of the amount of focus on her basically just being abused by her dad - was a little too much. Having said that, it does feed into Joan’s character development really nicely later on and is really important in truly understanding her. As soon as Joan meets Charles, the book transformed and instantly became a page-turner for me (as I predicted).
I loved how in Katherine J Chen really puts the reader in Joan’s head; it always felt very personal, like I knew her and to an extent was her. I also enjoyed the choice of making her relationship with God so strained to begin with because it left the question of whether she truly was divine or blessed so open and ambiguous.
This is not only a great read, but also I think an important one, and would highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child abuse

Minor: Rape