Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

There There by Tommy Orange

74 reviews

hannahglenn's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Suicide, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Death, and Death of parent

mthereader's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Addiction, Death, Grief, Bullying, Colonisation, Drug use, Pregnancy, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Abortion

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Alcoholism, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, and Racism

Minor: Car accident and Animal cruelty

emzireads's review

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Suicide

eddiesourboy's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Suicide and Car accident

taylor24's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Suicide, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Body shaming, Colonisation, and Sexual assault

sickee26's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Gun violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism

cassielaj's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.75

Absolutely stunning. This book features quite a few characters, each of whom has a fully crafted perspective and story. The author is able to pack so much emotion and story into each chapter, and he does an incredible job of weaving these stories and characters together. The book is a snapshot of the characters’ lives, but imbued with the depth of years, decades, generations of the stories that came before. The pace steadily increases throughout, giving this book a beautiful sense of flow and forward momentum. This book will be a classic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Blood, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Rape, and Pregnancy

This book is emotionally taxing, but so worth the read

bisexualwentworth's review

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

4.0

There There is the story of twelve indigenous people who end up at a powwow in Oakland, California. It traces their lives and their struggles and their relationships with each other in a gorgeously non-linear way.

There are so many interesting and experimental things going on in this book. There’s definitely a whole capstone paper about indigenous temporarily here. There’s a lot of interesting ruminations on Native identity and urban Native identity in particular (and I’m sure I missed a lot more as a white reader).

This is the first piece of long-form fiction that I’ve ever seen successfully incorporate first, second, AND third person point of view chapters as well as both present and past tense sections interspersed throughout the book (see earlier point about non-linear storytelling).

I read There There this week because it’s the Great Read at the library where I work and therefore kind of the book of the moment in my town. Tommy Orange is doing an author event that I tragically won’t be able to attend. It’s all very cool and I’m glad it got me to read this book!

I didn’t totally love this one, though. Some of the characters felt a bit too similar. The women in particular were all defined by sexual violence in one way or another, and while I know that it’s really important to talk about the horrible amounts of sexual violence faced by Native women, I wish that there had been more variety of women’s stories in this book. Maybe that’s unreasonable to expect from a cis man author. I don’t know.

Also, why did I think that Tommy Orange was queer? I’m pretty sure he’s not and the book is incredibly cishet, so I’m not sure where that idea came from. Oh well.

Please look at the very extensive list of content warnings if you have any of the major triggers. This book contains most of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Blood, Child death, Death, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Body shaming, Cancer, Colonisation, Suicide, Fatphobia, and Genocide

gilnean's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Excrement, Murder, Gore, Death, Genocide, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Cursing, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Suicide, Drug use, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Medical content, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Torture, Abandonment, Abortion, Self harm, Classism, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child abuse, Mental illness, Body horror, and Religious bigotry