Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

56 reviews

breadwitchery's review

dark emotional medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Body horror, Violence, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Animal death, and Racism

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Gun violence, Pedophilia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Fatphobia, Police brutality, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Cursing, Infertility, Suicide, Racial slurs, Misogyny, and Ableism

kit_colibri's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-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

4.25

Sorrowland is not a "neat" book. It doesn't tie up loose ends and rough edges, and that's a new experience for me as a reader. There are not clear lessons or morals or illuminating "aha" moments. However, the characters and the richness of their experiences was irresistible and I felt I was witnessing something important.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Self harm, Death, and Body horror

skudiklier's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

I don't really like horror, so I was really hesitant going into this book, and only read it for a book club. But I'm glad I did; though it was definitely dark and at times upsetting, it was also really good. I was fascinated by what was happening, and some of the twists really got me. This is the second book I've read by this author and I definitely think I'll look into their other work. 

Also, vague spoilers for the ending, but

I was pleasantly surprised by how happy the ending was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Stalking, Sexism, Torture, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Violence, Homophobia, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, and Racism

Moderate: Colonisation, Slavery, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Hate crime, Child death, Transphobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide and Racial slurs

kaschaller's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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: Body horror, Racism, Violence, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism and Suicide

queer_bookwyrm's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? No

5.0

5 ⭐ CW: (provided by the author) racism, misogyny, self-harm, sucidality, homophobia, animal death, sexual violence mentions, (provided by me) drug use/overdose mention, sex, body horror, medical experimentation 

"I like the woods. In them, the possibilities seem endless. They are where wild things are, and I like to think wild always wins. In the woods, it doesn't matter that there is no patch of earth that has not known bone. Known blood. Known rot. It feeds from that. It grows the trees. The mushrooms. It turns sorrows into flowers." 

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon is another incredible standalone that I'm probably never going to shut up about. So glad I started my year off with a nonbinary author. Solomon gave us albino rep, disability rep, queer rep, and indigenous rep. 

We follow Vern, a vision impaired black albino woman, who is fleeing a Black religious compound known mostly as Cainland. Cainland was a commune created by Black separatists, and shun anything from the white man's world. Vern has been married off to their reverend, and has chosen to give birth to her twins alone in the woods at 15. 

Vern is such a badass! She birthed twins alone and then decided to live in the woods with them totally self sufficient. She stays there, until she starts experiencing weird changes in her body since leaving the commune. Now she goes on a mission to figure out her past and what is really happening at Cainland. Suffice it to say we have a religious cult, government conspiracy, and medical experimentation similar to Tuskegee. 

Solomon always does a fantastic job of bringing characters to life and making them feel like real people. Even Vern's children, Howling and Feral, have full personalities. They are so cute and honestly the comic relief this heavy book needed. Gogo was a great love interest and gave Vern some depth and softness. 

I loved the concept of mushrooms, spores, and mycelium being used in this! Mushrooms as a super power! I'm loving all the mushroom-y things in media. Star Trek: Discovery uses a mycelial network to travel, and The Houseplant by Jeremy Ray uses mycelium as a way for different plants to communicate with each other.  Also, we get some serious spicy bits in here 🔥🥵. 

We get a lot of themes about choice, freedom, and the much needed criticism of the US. The US has committed so many atrocities and allowed them to happen. The United States is an occupational force on Indigenous land, and this book acknowledges that. Solomon points out to us how someone can become an extremist or be radicalized from severe disenfranchisement. 

I may even reread this book at some point, it was that good. Read this book. Read Rivers Solomon in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Body horror, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Racism, Misogyny, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence and Drug use

catapocalypse's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

I can't afford more auto-buy authors, but I can't deny that Rivers Solomon belongs among them after this.

<i>Sorrowland</i> follows the pregnant Vern after she escapes into the woods from the cult-like compound, Cainland, where she grew up. She gives birth to her twins and raises them there for a few years, away from both the confines of Cainland and the world beyond that she fears and distrusts. But something is gradually going very wrong with her body, and a malevolent hunter threatens their hideaway, forcing Vern to brave the outside world in order to seek out the friend who escaped years earlier and answers about Cainland and what it has really been doing to her and the others living there.

I enjoy a good prickly heroine, and Vern is <i>very</i> prickly! She is also very messy, partly because of her stubbornness and fiercely strong will, almost annoyingly so. But I'd remind myself that she was only fifteen at the start of the book's narrative and had been put through a lot. She had every right to be angry at the world, as her journey reckons with deception and the people unwilling to look beyond it, the liberties people take with others' bodies and lives (especially Black ones), and the coldness of American society in general (particularly toward the marginalized), which makes the cold winter in the woods feel welcoming by contrast.

Despite the real and supernatural horrors, there is still love and even hope. The book surprised me in many ways, and I am already itching to reread it after having just finished it.

Content warnings provided by the author: "Note discussion and instances of racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicidality, and homophobia, inclusion of animal death and explicit violence, and references to sexual violence that have taken place off the page."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Self harm, Homophobia, and Animal death

Moderate: Misogyny and Suicide

Minor: Sexual violence

esmithumland's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is a new favorite book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Suicide, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma

odrib's review

challenging dark sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Colonisation, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

Minor: Car accident

uss_mary_shelley's review

adventurous dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective medium-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

5.0

This book is enchanting and bursting with thrill, danger and love. I’ll try not to spoil too much, nor talk in detail about the many cw topics. But it is a book, about racism, about fear, about dehumanisation and metamorphosis, about power and abuse, and about the state all the same. But it is also about love, love without conditions, love that spans generations, communities and people. When I started reading, the first thing I said to my other half was “It starts with a land acknowledgement!” and although that is not the main thing I will take away, it underlies the whole story. This book is rooted in human connections and human experience, all the way through to Vern’s view of the world. We are taken with her, and it is not a story I will forget. Rivers Solomon has captured so much, so well. Reading the sex scenes felt respectful, knowing and genuine. When reading the violent scenes, the turbulence and decisions made sense, and the difference between violence coming down and violence going up was weighted and realised. I definitely be reading more from Rivers Solomon, although I want to sit with this for a day or so.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence and Domestic abuse

The authors note at the start highlights the cws and themes throughout

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

"How come white folks were always telling Black people to get over slavery because it was 150 or so years ago but they couldn't get over their Christ who died 1,830 years before that?"

If that isn't the million dollar question, I don't know what is, hah. Sorrowland was a tough book to read. It was hard in the sense that there were a lot of intertwining heavy topics, and it's not for the faint of heart (major content warning for body horror). They presented the United States' dark history and the treatment of Black people (and, to no one's surprise, it's violent). Solomon also briefly touched on this country's position as colonizers, reminding us of the violence that Black and Indigenous peoples have faced.

However, another hard aspect of this book for me was getting invested in the story. Solomon is a phenomenal storyteller, and they presented a well-developed and deeply disturbing world through the eyes of their protagonist, Vern. I can't quite place my finger on what it was that failed to pull me into the story, though. I'm inclined to say that it was awkward pacing and a sometimes vague plot. There were instances when I couldn't quite tell where Solomon wanted to take the reader, though maybe that was the purpose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide