Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

12 reviews

jaklindberg's review against another edition

Proctor Bennett waxes poetic about his wife, how amazing she is, how in love he is with her, and the regularity of their sex life. Still, he cheats on her with a relative stranger (a 15-minute conversation over a cigarette plus a four-hour lunch does not make one familiar enough not to be strangers) when she goes on a business trip. Then, it turns out to be a dream state, so NBD shouldn't get mad at someone based on their dreams that would be irrational.

They wake up to find that in real life, he cheated on his grieving wife after the loss of their four-year-old child to drowning. It turns out the real-life affair partner is also pregnant, so. . nope. I'm done. That whole thing went out the window. Nothing turns me off from a story quicker than the garbage I read.

It is grossly unfair how Bennett gives the impression of familiarity of having sex with his wife with more fluid, respectful descriptions, but when it comes to affair partner, it's more fades to black to be more respectful of his time with her. Dude? WTF?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Infidelity

lizzie24601's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another stellar novel from Justin Cronin. His rich, illustrative prose is much stronger when he writes in third person - so the long-winded chapters from Proctor's perspective are a bit boring at first, but the narrative picks up once the plot speeds up.

As always, Cronin constructs interesting and nuanced characters and builds a complex and mysterious world that you can get lost in. I didn't see the plot twist coming, but once it did, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it earlier. I wish we had gotten a bit more from Elise's perspective, and more about Proctor's

real world backstory prior to the Oranios launch

, but I'm happy with the pacing and where the book ends up. Strong recommendation for anyone who enjoyed The Passage trilogy or fans of light, realistic sci fi.

My one remaining question:

If only the Prosperans went to the Nursery, were the colonists in the Annex just... reincarnated? Because presumably they were living more than one lifetime as well. How did that work?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

teabex's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Classism, and Child death

Minor: Suicide and Murder

metchap's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Child death

luverbyrd's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Just when you feel like it's strange, it gets stranger then stranger and then weird to the point of "what the heck is happening!?". Eventually it makes sense. For me I sort of was on the right track but definitely threw me for a loop with the truth. I'm not going to say much because it is definitely best to go into this as blind as possible, because what a ride it took me on.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Sexual content, Gun violence, Death, and Child death

itsme_lori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Child death, and Grief

kdelong's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Police brutality, Child death, and Suicide

amhud1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Police brutality, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Dementia, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, and Infidelity

ppppaula's review

hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

This hooked me front the 1st page. I love a good dystopian sci-fi tale and have been struggling to find a good one for a while. I enjoy the author’s writing style and the ability to weave such a interesting story. I thought I’d guessed where this was going and I was slightly right in 1 aspect only. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Medical content

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Child death, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent and Infidelity

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident