Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

10 reviews

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-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

A beautifully heartbreaking story. The writing was just exquisite, i could easily picture every scene and character with how poetically they were written. I really enjoyed this and can’t wait to watch the movie and compare them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, and Sexual assault

quinn24's review

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Told from the POV of Astrid Magnussen, daughter of a manipulative poet who is imprisoned early in the story for the murder of an ex-lover. The story follows Astrid through her various foster homes for the next 6 years as she grows and tries to escape her mother’s grip. 
This book was written in such a beautiful way there were so so many quotes I underlined. There wasn’t really anything that I could  personally relate to but it almost felt like I understood at times. There were moments where it was kinda boring but that’s almost always how it is when a book follows someone’s life. The N-slur is used a couple times and while every time it is used it’s clear that it’s not a good thing to call someone (it’s used by a terrible, racist character) it’s obviously still not great for a white women to be writing it. Overall though it was really a fascinating meditation on a very complex mother-daughter relationship

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Death, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Gaslighting, Racial slurs, Racism, Addiction, Murder, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism

dizzzybrook's review

emotional reflective 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

5.0

I think this is one of my absolute favorite books I have ever read. I found both Astrid's character and her complicated relationship with her mother deeply relatable. I really enjoy this style of writing even though it understandably may come off as pretentious or overdramatic to some. My only gripe is that I personally found the ending to be a little lackluster, but that's genuinely just a personal preference. This will definitely be a book I reread in the future as there is so much to dissect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicide, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, and Racism

coleanne's review

dark reflective sad 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Cursing

Minor: Racial slurs, Drug use, Death, and Racism

sizzlesteaks's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Mental illness, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual content, Child abuse, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Death, and Blood

Minor: Bullying

reesespuff6's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Medical content, Alcohol, Cursing, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Self harm

blouviere4's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

layton93's review

dark emotional reflective medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

amlee9001's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

I loved this book, which seems almost slice-of-life to me, but I know that's just how character-driven stories always seem to me.  Astrid is both condemnable and loveable, she's everything a teenage girl hates in herself and everything that a girl coming-of-age is.  I also think it's a great look into the underbelly of the foster care system and a very good argument for foster care reform, at least when you strip back the drama of fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Death

This book was a wild ride with a lot coming at you all the time, the content is heavy, but it's worth a read if you are able to read it.

minalinalu's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

If I am honest, this was the most energy draining book I ever read. Not spesificly because of the writing style or the amount of pages (even if both of it was also challenging), it was mostly a very tiring read because of its slowness. The slowness of character actions that as they were over still seemed like they never changed the story, the slowness of devolpment that I only seemed to really notice at the very beginning and the very end, as if there was nothing but void between those two points.
I wouldn't recomend this book because for me it never seemed to give the reader anything but a challenging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Stalking

Moderate: Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying, Vomit, Mental illness, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts