Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

There There by Tommy Orange

77 reviews

kelly_e's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective 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

3.75

Title: There There
Author: Tommy Orange
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: June 5, 2018

T H R E E • W O R D S

Urgent • Profane • Gritty

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Set in Oakland, California, There There is a debut novel following 12 Native Americans as they converge on the annual Powwow. Following the death of his uncle, Dene Oxedene has won a grant and has decided to put together a documentary in the hopes of preserving the stories of his people. Weaving together past and present, each character divulges their story of what life is like for them. Exploring themes of violence, identity, despair, family, community and history the story takes us into the urban experience of each character.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Tommy Orange has taken a lot of risks, and with unique style and voice has delivered an ambitious and healing debut novel. It tackles many themes through both cultural and political perspectives, opening the eyes of the reader to a history they may be completely unaware of. It shines a light on the daily victories and losses, the multi-generational trauma of displacement, and stolen identity of not just the individual but the collective. The writing is superb and it's hard to come away unchanged. This book is filled with so many big ideas and the power in telling our stories.

I listened to the audio while reading a physical copy, and this added to the richness of the story as the audiobook contains a full cast. Because the book follows so many different characters I was appreciative of the list naming each one at the start.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers wanting to expand their knowledge
• book clubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"'Life doesn't work out the way stories do.'"

"'Some of us got this feeling stuck inside, all the time, like we've done something wrong. Like who we are deep inside, that thing we want to name but can't, it's like we're afraid we'll be punished for it. So we hide. We drink alcohol because it helps us feel like we can be ourselves and not be afraid. But we punish ourselves with it. The thing we most don't want has a way of landing right on top of us.'" 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Alcoholism, Addiction, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Cursing, Drug use, and Suicide

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Excrement, Sexual assault, Rape, Child death, Abortion, and Domestic abuse

substance misuse, fetal alcohol syndrome, adoption

sarahmae531's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I wish that the conflict in the book happened earlier so we could see the aftermath of it. I felt like a lot of what lead up to the powwow wasn’t totally necessary, and I would’ve preferred it be swapped out for after the powwow. The amount of characters was also hard for me to follow along with, but I did enjoy slowly seeing how they were all connected and crossed paths with each other. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Car accident, Cursing, and Cancer

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

lyd41's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Did not enjoy the ending 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Grief, Gore, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Cursing, Child death, Child abuse, Car accident, Bullying, Blood, Alcoholism, and Addiction

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Fatphobia

gmwells's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Abortion, Cancer, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Terminal illness

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Brilliant like a hot knife through your chest. 
This is a complex read that pieces together the stories of many characters and how they influence each other's lives. There are so many things to talk about with this one that I think you could lead a whole class on it. I fell in love with the characters and just wanted them to find peace. For some reason I went into the book thinking it was going to be more wholesome and about identity, and it was about identity but it was also about colonialism, racism and the cycle of violence. It is unflinching and only relents a little at the end. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Pregnancy

dannythestreet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

5.0

That's the kind of book that helps you become a better person and reader, it dives deep into exploring human emotion and behaviour which is exactly the reason I read books.
Honestly, this book made me care for every single character in it (there are a lot btw). Can't wait to come back to it and read it again

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Death of parent, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

loch_nesa's review against another edition

dark tense

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

2.5

I enjoyed the parts that talked about the native experience. The other stuff I really didnt enjoy.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gun violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Rape, Cancer, Death of parent, and Child death

georgiesutton's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

3.5

I found the book a little hard to follow and found myself caring for some characters far more than others and because I was invested in their stories I was left wanting more from them. The others just added noise and confusion. However this was enjoyable, I just would have liked it to be more refined and develop the end more as it kind of just left me gobsmacked with not much reflection or processing or answers. The book had also come highly recommended and for me didn’t live up to that which is a shame because I like multi-perspective/generational books, this just tried to do too much. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Minor: Blood

lilcoppertop's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Violence