Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

13 reviews

pobaw24's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Death of parent, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Suicide

alyal's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-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

5.0

read after shanghia girls by Lisa See. I loved this book and the characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment

notartgarfunkel's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, War, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Child death

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Miscarriage, and Racism

Minor: Homophobia

celine_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging emotional

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, and War

yinflower's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Classism, War, and Grief

kappafrog's review

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Grief, War, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Car accident, Cannibalism, Gore, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Death, Eating disorder, and Injury/injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Trafficking, and Murder

marissasa's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book tells the stories of 4 immigrant Chinese women and each of their Chinese-American daughters. Although I like multiple POVs for the fact that they never get monotonous, they almost always end up with some characters being less developed or having less time focused on their stories, and that is definitely the case with this one. I enjoyed all the mothers' POVs and the look into their lives before they came to America, but honestly didn't think the daughters' stories matched them at all in how interesting and nuanced it made their situations. All the mothers had trauma relating to the loss of their children and families, marriage issues, being displaced from their homes, and their daughters' not understanding them. All of the daughters then had generational trauma, mommy issues, and a disconnect from their Chinese identities. The thing that made me dislike almost all of the daughters' stories was that except for Jing-mei, all of their POVs revolved around their troubles with their white husbands or boyfriends. The whole time I'm reading about them just thinking "free my sisters from the shackles of white men lmao". I wish they were given more depth and character development that was unrelated to their relationships with white men, or at least having just one character go through that so that the daughters' stories weren't so similar and forgettable. Jing-mei is the exception to this and I definitely thought her and her mother Suyuan's stories were the most memorable, and I do wish they had more time for their stories than they got. I did love the ending and how the story came full circle with the first and last chapter being Jing-mei's though, and the emotional conclusion felt satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Abortion, Child abuse, Child death, Suicide, Terminal illness, War, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Grief

kstericker's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death of parent, War, Infidelity, Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Child death, and Abortion

Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Injury/injury detail, Addiction, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child abuse

counciloffrogs's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

5.0

This reflection on mother-daughter relationships and the turmoil they can experience is beautifully written. It clearly shows the humanity of families and the shortcomings and misinterpretations that can complicate relationships. I absolutely loved this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Child death

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, Rape, Child abuse, and Grief

Minor: Suicide and War

readerette's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

While this story and the characters are not always pleasant, they feel very real. I was touched by the weaving of the mothers' and daughters' stories, how American culture bled into the lives of all the characters, the struggles of being an immigrant and a parent (and how individual each set of struggles is). Relatable and also informative on aspects of a culture I'm not that familiar with.

That said, the weaving of the characters' stories did get muddy for me, I didn't get enough about the Joy Luck Club itself, and all of these people supposedly friendly with one another could be incredibly petty and cruel to their "friends". Perhaps I'm just leading with my white American eye on that last part though--friendship looks different to different people.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: War, Grief, Infidelity, Infertility, Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, and Abortion