Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn

6 reviews

moondragon8's review against another edition

funny tense fast-paced

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

3.75

i liked it! i will say you can kind of tell this is a novel written because someone thought "wow, wouldn't it be cool if..." and then just kind of went from there without giving too much thought to the meat of the story. (the thing that really kept nagging at me was that supposedly the island had declared itself an independent nation from the us, but like...come on. anyone can declare that, it doesn't mean the us will actually agree. and how much technology did they have, anyway? and how big was this island???) 
the story was also darker than i expected, in a sort of weird way where you...didn't really feel the emotional resonance of those moments, but were just like "damn, that's fucked up. we're just moving on from that? okay". i guess some of this could be attributed to the epistolary format, but...i dunno.
still, a fun kind of experiment, and a truly unique form of the dystopian novel. i'm glad i picked it up!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Grief, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging funny informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

What an amazing and PERFECT book!!! I was imagining the book being taught in English classes and how this would've made me so excited to read. I was so excited to read it at 24 years old, I read it without the audiobook! What a cool challenge to have kids try to write without certain letters! The history of the island is also interesting too, which meant for students learning bigger, more archaic words! I knew I was gonna give it 5 stars before I was 25 pages in. 

It's also a good representation of so many things kids will encounter as they get older. Idol worship / fanaticism / religious cults, fascism and political activism against it. What a perfect book! What a perfect book!!!

Unrelated to the book, whenever I get a new pen I always tested it by writing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." I find out IMMEDIATELY I've been writing the sentence wrong FOR YEARS!!!!! I know there was a time when I wrote it right! What happened!!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Religious bigotry, Bullying, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death, Violence, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Death of parent, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Grief, Ableism, and Murder

Minor: Gaslighting, Racial slurs, and Misogyny

blipbloopsie's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

qrschulte's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

This book had an interesting premise, but the focus on staying true to the “joke” of the book about letters being removed from a society’s vocabulary being told through letters (epistolary), was a bit much in my opinion. The characters weren’t that compelling, and a whole lot of nothing happened for it all to get resolved real quick in the last 20 pages (which incidentally were pretty blank).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, and Deportation

Moderate: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Confinement

tessarudnick's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful lighthearted slow-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

4.5

So charming!! A book in love with words. A simple and excellent allegory for censorship, this book revels in playing with language and how we can process it. An incredibly sad and dark story that manages to feel light and fun the whole way through. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Grief, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, and Alcohol

untoworthy's review against another edition

dark sad tense

• 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? No

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Mental illness, and Suicide