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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I haven’t read Ted Hughes, but I know grief. As a book about grief, this is excellent. Incomprehensible but excellent. Kind of like grief.
Audiobook - Reflected the pain of grief in an almost humorous way
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A novella centered around a father and his two sons processing the sudden death of their wife and mother. The POV shifts from Dad to boys to crow, with the crow appearing to help ease their grief. It's such a a beautiful yet dark read, often feeling like a poem that flits around from memory to emotion to rambling thoughts and words. This is a book I'm definitely holding on to and know I'll come back to at some point in the future.
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I firstly noticed that the title of this book was adapted from Dickinson's poem "Hope is the thing with feathers", in which she uses a bird as a metaphor. It perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops - at all. As grief does.
I like the subject of grief in books and I was delighted to see it depicted as originally and well as the author did in this book, mixing prose and poetry.
I liked the shifts in perspectives from which the story was told.
I liked that the pov of the crow didn't always make sense, and I felt like the way the story was told was messy, as mourning can be and portrayed pretty well the complex and contradictory emotions associated with grief.
At first, I thought the crow was (despite being a literal bird) the personification of grief, but the more I read, the more I felt like crow was actually hope. In the end, he is what helped the family survive by forcing them to confront the absence left by the death of the mom/wife, refusing to leave until they're strong enough to carry on.
I like the subject of grief in books and I was delighted to see it depicted as originally and well as the author did in this book, mixing prose and poetry.
I liked the shifts in perspectives from which the story was told.
I liked that the pov of the crow didn't always make sense, and I felt like the way the story was told was messy, as mourning can be and portrayed pretty well the complex and contradictory emotions associated with grief.
At first, I thought the crow was (despite being a literal bird) the personification of grief, but the more I read, the more I felt like crow was actually hope. In the end, he is what helped the family survive by forcing them to confront the absence left by the death of the mom/wife, refusing to leave until they're strong enough to carry on.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes