Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

41 reviews

abbyaxj's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-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

3.75

Really enjoyed it, got more and more into it as I went. Not a book I could read when distracted due to the style of writing but gave a wonderful dark story from the 19th century

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mousecat's review against another edition

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

3.5


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m4rtt4's review against another edition

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

3.25

this differed a lot from my expectations, the gothic stuff was surprising but in a positive way... unlike all the marriages. So much death and almost everyone was an asshole in their own way and the love stories didn't feel believable enough so that I could have cared for the characters.
also you can never make me root for a marriage between CHILDREN that are COUSINS and make it happen multiple times.

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nineinchnails's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

i wish i could articulate why i liked this so much better but it was a super cathartic read. the prose was beautiful and the characterisation was really good in my opinion. i find it infinitely more interesting and satisfying to read about flawed characters than mary sues or people with shortcomings that get no worse than “i love too hard😔” so this was really enjoyable. i think heathcliffs ethnicity was worked really well into the book and gave a lot of insight into his character. i went into this pretty much blind but expecting it to be more of a romance than it was but i was pleasantly surprised! i think this is a gothic novel, and if that is the case, it was a very good example of one! i might be slightly biased since it’s set in yorkshire (my homeland) and it feels somewhat nostalgic despite being written centuries before i was born.

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lindseyhall44's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-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

5.0

“In every cloud, in every tree-filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in very object, by day I am surrounded by her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women-my own features-mock me with a resemblance. The entire would is a dreadful collection if memoranda that she did exist, and I have lost her.”
I cannot put into words how much this novel meant to me. It was beautiful, it was heart wrenching, it was horrifying, it was a book I hope to read 1000 times over.  I would highly, highly recommend for any fans of gothic literature, or those interested in themes of love, obsession, and vengance. I will say that this is not a romance, but love is a driving factor for almost everything. Once again, I cannot stress how much I loved Wuthering Heights.

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"Time brought resignation and a melancholy sweeter than common joy."

This is a surprisingly consumable classic that I enjoyed very much! I truly appreciate Brontë's commitment to creating unlikeable characters. Through all of the evil acts and biased narration (provided by Lockwood and Nelly) the characters all emerged as feeling particularly human, Heathcliff specifically. He is made out to be this tragic character, a man filled with so much vitriol, yet he has this magnetism you can't help to be attracted to. The same goes for Hareton. Nelly portrayed him in such a negative light when he was first introduced, but you can't help but find sympathy for those types of characters. That said, and with all of the parallels between them, I  am struggling to understand why I was rooting for Hareton and Cathy (jr) with all of my heart, but couldn't find that same enthusiasm for Heathcliff and Cathy. Hareton and Cathy just had so much cute charm (ignoring the incest). Even when Linton was in the way I struggled to find it convincing at all. That said I don't really think of Wuthering Heights as a classic romance novel. The romance is just shrouded in so many layers of grief, class dynamics, etc. I also was surprisingly satisfied with the ending. Cathy and Hareton getting married and Heathcliff (crazy till the end) is able to end up with his Cathy in a way. I was dissatisfied with the lack of ghosts though. I feel like the first few chapters totally misled us...

The second half of the book was my favorite, I feel like it isn't mentioned enough! And why does nobody talk about the fact that Heathcliff isn't a white man!

Songs: 
  • Ghosts - James Vincent Mcmorrow
  • Knuckle Velvet - Ethel Cain 
  • Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush 
  • Shades of Cool - Lana del Rey  
  • Dark Paradise - Lana del Rey

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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging 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

2.0

This is a book I was assigned to read in highschool.. and that, like every other read I was set, I quit at page 37. I resolved to one day pick it up and digest it in it's entirety. Verdict? Not very filling, a bit dry, not that satisfying. If I hadn't deliberately exerted myself, I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.

The setting is ostensibly spooky. It's a cold and desolate windblown house, with warped trees and harsh weather. The introduction sets the reader ill at ease with a new tenant imposing himself upon the landlord's household, only to meet with dour people and rude manners. Every attempt he makes to act toward them in a warm or overly familiar way is oh so cringeworthy, and disconcerting.

The narrative is told through word of mouth stories. The main narrator on the history of the characters is a maid servant, but yet further detail is fleshed out through recounting the content of letters and anecdotes of others... this method of telling stories inside stories I have seen before in things like Shelley's Frankenstein.

The Classism in this is predictably rampant. The use of a Yorkshire accent is disparaged and laughed at. Frustratingly for me, the narrator of the audiobook couldn't do the dialect any justice and she fumbled through all the parts that are written phonetically in rustic parlance. This took a lot more work for me to interpret than if it were read fluently. Gah! t'th divvel wet ye!

Another recurring theme is the whole cliché of dark and light. A dark haired, supposedly ill-bred orphan is taken to hearth and home, and of course fair haired, light eyed, pale skinned people are seen as morally superior. A bit of vanilla Racism to rub into the literature. Well.. the book is old.. but I don't have to like it.

Honestly confused at what a teacher would hope to gain from getting teens to vivisect a book like this.. the book is pale and dreary, a litany of ills and intergenerational abuse, of slow burning insidious revenge. I mean, I used to be a goth.. I've listened to Kate Bush.. this wasn't even romantic.

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issyd23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy fucking shit this nocked my socks off! The prose are phenomenal & moving. Not bad for a virgin with no friends who died at 30 from TB 5🪦

Joanne Froggatt also fucking slayed the audiobook 5🪦

NB Nelly doesn’t get paid enough to deal with all the BS from the Lintons + Earnshaws - get a better employer girl! 

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canyi's review against another edition

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

3.5

Read as part of a buddy read among friends so it’s more recreational/ to mock it as a romance. But my final opinion is that its not a romance to mock because
it’s not a romance but more of a horror, the true romance is not the “main” couple, they’re the source of the horror. The true romance in this book is the end couple, I guess you could look at it as a romance that blossomed from the pure evil doings of Heathcliff but it really doesn’t feel like it’s the main point.


Personally I prefer to read books where I like or enjoy the main characters so honestly it wouldn’t be my go to pick. However once I got past that I found it was actually a really easy/ captivating read once I acknowledged (not a major plot spoiler)
that it was not a romance but more of a horror.


Despite the slow moving plot I felt compelled to finish it, at least just because I wanted to see if
Heathcliff is ever stopped
. Although I was inclined to give this a one star because I absolutely despised most of the characters, I don’t think I was supposed to like them. Honestly it’s easier to hate a character you’re supposed to hate than not liking a character you’re supposed to like.

3.5 stars because it wasn’t a bad story
just terrible people, although I will admit the rating would be lower if it didn’t have a somewhat happy ending.

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tammykuffo's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Everyone is miserable 

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