Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Overleverne by Alex Schulman

7 reviews

cmlalonde's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Overall decent book. The story jumped back and forth between two timelines: following the three brothers from childhood until the incident, and following the three brothers as adults, but backwards in time. I wasn't a big fan of this method, sometimes difficult to follow.

I probably didn't enjoy it as much either because I was overthinking the big climactic story point. My guesses weren't even close.

I did enjoy the characters though, especially their awkward interactions with each other. It does make conversations seen more real when people don't always say the right thing or there's miscommunications.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Mental illness

maddygreen54's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

sara_n's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Car accident, Vomit, Bullying, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

archaicrobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I had no idea what The Survivors was about when I grabbed it, but I saw it EVERYWHERE! I’m so happy I decided to grab it from the library when I saw it because it was such a tragic and moving story about brothers and how they deal with the trauma of their childhoods. 

The story is told backwards, starting at the end and making its way back to the beginning. Told from Benjamin’s perspective, the middle brother or three, you see glimpses of a dysfunctional, and at times abusive family, as they try to bond and enjoy themselves at their summer lake house in the Swedish wilderness. 

Schulman does an excellent job of capturing that temperamental bond between siblings where you feel like you have a constant companion that you sometimes love fiercely but also sometimes hate with the same tenacity.  While tragic, I could not put this down and finished it quickly in two days. 

Warnings: animal cruelty, animal death, parent deaths. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Grief, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Suicide attempt

sideknee's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child death, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Emotional abuse

bingsdings's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Abandonment, Death, Child death, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

_inge_'s review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Read as part of the octa finals translated fiction of the BookTube Prize 2022, rating and review forthcoming when this round of judging ends. 

This book has an interesting structure. It tells the story of an event that happened when the narrator was young. There are two time lines: the present is told by going back in time in steps of a couple of hours. On this day, three brothers reunite to scatter their mother's ashes in a place where they used to go on holiday - and where something happened that made them all survivors.

The storyline in the past is not as structured, there are loose memories and they slowly work up to something that happened and its aftermath. In the present time line, some things are revealed.

While reading the book, I had the feeling it was working towards some sad event involving the father for some reason, but that was not it. There really was no way to know what the ending would be - but in hindsight it gives a lot more depth to the book. This is one of those books that will probably reveal a bunch of clues when it is read again, knowing what was going on. The story structure makes the story more compelling than if it had been told chronologically - even with dual timelines. That was an excellent choice by the author.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death