Reviews tagging 'Child death'

There There by Tommy Orange

51 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.0

the plot and characters are great, but i did find myself getting lost between all the different characters and their stories because of all the different perspectives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Colonisation, and Death

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Murder, Alcohol, Racism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Death, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Car accident, Colonisation, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Drug use, Drug abuse, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Incest, Misogyny, Torture, War, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Cancer, Body horror, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Excrement, and Rape

quailtea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

wanted to like it, but had a hard time keeping track of the characters, especially with some similar events in their lives (which i didn't think were necessarily supposed to be the same
events from different perspectives), and was just bummed out about the main event the whole book was angling towards in a way that turned me off to it, just wanted it to be over at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Child death, and Death of parent

allisoncc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Suicide, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: Rape, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Genocide, Child death, Violence, Sexual assault, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Abortion

kellykc's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Body horror, Child death, Xenophobia, Violence, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Alcoholism, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

God, I devoured this book. So intense, so real, so complex. If you're thinking about reading this book, just do it. An important book about Native communities and just all communities. How we've failed our neighbors on a systemic level since the inception of this country that was built on stolen land.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Classism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Toxic relationship, Child death, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Drug abuse, Racism, Abortion, Bullying, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

lilacwhisker's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Beautiful look into many different Native people’s lives. Surprisingly it didn’t take long to get used to and remember the characters (my personal favorite was Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield’s!!) and the stories were all great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcoholism, Murder, Colonisation, Alcohol, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Mental illness

Moderate: Rape, Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Blood, Sexual assault, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Abortion, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

raelong12's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death of parent, Child death, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, and Car accident

sydapel's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

One of those books that will just haunt you in a way that feels both comforting but leaves a deep ache. Even with a tragedy you can see slowly approaching, it's the characters that grab onto you and leave you thinking long after you've finished the book. These characters will deeply change the way you think about indigenous people in America and what as a culture they have been through. Definitely check trigger warnings but this is not one to skip. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Violence, Alcoholism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Child death, Blood, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, Hate crime, Genocide, and Physical abuse

chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

3.0

The idea of this book is so phenomenal; it's a character study focused on the diverse range of life experiences within the Native American community, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that a growing number of Native Americans now live in cities - not on reservations. It explores various themes, including self-discovery, identity, self-loathing, heritage, parental expectations, toxic/abusive relationships, forgiveness, etc etc etc. The book also tells different character perspectives in different styles, including every thing from first to second to third person POVs, past and present verb tenses, and various other tone shifts used to distinguish characters from one another.

One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.

However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, and Rape