Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

27 reviews

memeraryfiction's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

The Safekeep is an incredible book; I couldn't put it down and read it in two sittings. Van der Wouden's writing is excellent; she conveys tension and emotion so beautifully. Given the book's subject matter (memory, loss, echoes of the Second World War), it could easily have become maudlin but never did. I find war novels a very difficult sell these days (because there are just so many of them!), but this one is well worth reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Genocide, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual harassment

sqow's review against another edition

mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Genocide, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

mayab56's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Stalking, Death of parent, War, and Deportation

Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pedophilia and Gaslighting

ally_reads_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book dragged in the middle. It had a strong finish and I liked the twist. I wish I had skipped ahead to part 3 when I started to get bored of

the romance

in part 2. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Grief

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Death of parent

Minor: Genocide, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and War

anna_lizzy8's review

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War

deedireads's review

emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.

I’d owned a copy of The Safekeep since before it was published (thanks, Avid Reader Press!), but for whatever reason it just never bubbled up to the top of my TBR — until it was nominated (and then shortlisted) for the Booker Prize. And WOW, am I glad for it. I loved this one.

The Safekeep is a fever dream of a novel about a woman named Isabel in the Netherlands in the early 1960s. She lives a life of curmudgeonly solitude in the house her family moved into during WWII — until her brother’s latest girlfriend comes to stay, and her belongings start to disappear one by one (or do they?).

I don’t want to say too much more about the plot, except that the tone and trajectory does a 180 about halfway through, and there’s a decent twist that you can see coming if you look carefully (although I did not). Also, fair warning, this book is extremely horny.

What an incredible debut novel. What a look at desire and loneliness and what home means and the obsessive pursuit of the thing you want. But above all, what a look at complicity and what it means to have been complicit.

I’m still rooting for James, but I definitely wouldn’t be mad if this won the Booker.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Genocide, Death of parent, and War

reb_knits's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

Let’s absolutely go lesbians 

Somehow didn’t know this book was gay before I started it so this top-tier sapphic yearning was a treat

Definitely not the book for you if you hate the “oh no we are gay and oh no it is the olden days what shall we do” genre but I was pleasantly surprised by the way this book explored and flipped that trope 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse

char_a_lot_te's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

Im starting to think this book isnt about pears yall. i suppose its about things. possessions. 

in the first part of this book i thought it was shaping out to just another decent book, but then the entire thing just unravels before you and its honestly amazing. its such an intricately crafted story. no detail goes to waste. 

often i feel like books sort of, rush their happy endings, but this book didnt feel that way. at least, it was more natural the way it happened.

also van der Wouden is just a good writer, specifically very good at controlling the pace and urgency of her writing such that you read certain paragraphs really fast and it comes to a tipping point, and then everything just stops.

i was surprised by how good this was! booker prize shortlist fully deserved 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation

Moderate: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War

avasbookmark's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Homophobia, Death of parent, and War

jackie10024's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I think the written book was probably much better than the audiobook. The narrator’s breathless, urgent delivery of every line of the major characters was a huge distraction. All of the major characters sounded either frantic and anxiety-ridden, or self-interested and dismissive. The sex scenes, which were explicit, were probably well-written, but sounded more like porn when read aloud. The story was good, though, and I feel like if it had been detached from the audiobook version, was probably more rewarding. It reminded me a bit of The Reader, although it’s quite a different book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry