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helen's review against another edition
4.0
Difficult to categorise novel - part historical fiction (with quotes from real historical sources), part fantasy (the main characters are ghosts who are in denial about being dead) and part morality tale (with the main message being enjoy life while you can because everything dies).
I found it grimly funny and poignant, but got a bit irritated by the layout - there are chapters of dialogue formatted as a play script, interspersed with chapters of quotes from real and imagined historical sources. It made for a quick read, with lots of blank space on the page, but I would have preferred prose.
As well as reading with my eyes I also read with my ears, and I would recommend the latter. The audiobook has 166 different narrators, including nick offerman and david sedaris, who are wonderful.
Content notes:child death, grief, suicide, slavery, racism, rape, war, death, murder, sexism, injury description, child molestation mention, spiritual possession, description of embalming
I found it grimly funny and poignant, but got a bit irritated by the layout - there are chapters of dialogue formatted as a play script, interspersed with chapters of quotes from real and imagined historical sources. It made for a quick read, with lots of blank space on the page, but I would have preferred prose.
As well as reading with my eyes I also read with my ears, and I would recommend the latter. The audiobook has 166 different narrators, including nick offerman and david sedaris, who are wonderful.
Content notes:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Grief, and Child death
Moderate: Rape, Slavery, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
Minor: Death, Child abuse, and War
dakotuhhh's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Honestly just want to say this is probably my favorite book I’ve ever read. I’ve dealt with a lot of difficult mental health issues over the last few years and death has been a steady topic throughout. I think this book genuinely did help me with that and I loved every bit of it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Rape, Racism, and Murder
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Child abuse
While all of these things appear in the book, they’re not explicitly the viewpoints or beliefs of the author, just to clarify. The book wasn’t written by a racist but there are racist characters and themes of racism.
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