Reviews with content warning for Death - In Memoriam

Reviews tagging 'Death'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

233 reviews

bethanwx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I couldn't put this down. An epic, emotional, tender story of Gaunt and Ellwood, two men coming face to face with gory WWI. Their lives are shattered but they begin to be sewn up again, both anchored by their feelings for the other. Their love story is beautifully delicate, passionate and all-consuming.

Winn carefully crafts how people attempt to mentally protect themselves in war and the futility of war on common people. In the stories of these soldiers, many no more than teenagers, we also see that the priveleges of money, class and connections play am important role in survival.

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simoneg's review against another edition

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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

5.0

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isabelcostamurray's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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anj's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-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

3.0

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damianwayne's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

I hear the breaking bodies scream.
Thankful I have hit my mark,
I slither through the trenching dark.
You bleed to death in all my dreams.

I knew I would love this the moment I began reading since two of my favourite books are Atonement and Maurice. I was right (I often painfully am). This book is harrowing (as was Atonement), but the effects of war itself and the damaging and corrupt nature of it are far more focused on than in Atonement, where the effects of the war are specific to Robbie, and are seen more as a fallout and focus on the impact Briony had on his life. War breaks Ellwood in every single way; war breaks Robbie Turner by killing him, but ultimately not his hope. It is not the war itself that drives him partially insane, but the thirst and pain and nightmares.

As for Maurice, I suppose In Memoriam’s ending is happy (hopeful) but not nearly to the level of Maurice and Alec. Maurice is an inherent tragedy as a contemporary piece of fiction that must be a fantasy for the sake of its ending and lack of the drafted monologue due to the impending threat of the First World War. In Memoriam seems like a logical follow up in that sense. Part of my adoration for Maurice led me to initially question their moving to Brazil (‘until my death or England’s’) but it has grown on me as the natural progression of Ellwood’s disgust with England and the need for them to avoid the fallout of World War Two.

There is a tragedy in the ending of this book despite all the hope it left me with. It is simply the notion that Ellwood loved Brazil, and his life he created whilst there, but simultaneously Gaunt was aware that Ellwood would never be able to love him again. Whilst that itself is tragic, I think about how much Ellwood grew to despise England and everything surrounding the country, which is why there is such a barrier preventing him from loving Gaunt. Henry spends so much of this novel shying away from his German heritage and instead consistently— and persistently— reminding everyone that he’s not only British first, but essentially exclusively British. And that is something that will never change, in the same way he ends up longing for both Ellwood’s love and Europe, meaning that he’s made himself content with a life with many imperfections. I can only hope a steep incline in progress occurs post-canon and their love is soon rectified.

The biggest personal tragedy is perhaps how I have been consistently searching for which song from Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying would be most fitting (I decided upon ´Till Forever and Fool Me A Good Night) only for the title track to be the absolutely most applicable to Ellwood at the end: ‘That’s why I, I don’t cry’, ‘That’s why I can’t love you now’

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proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

När första världskriget bryter ut är många av pojkarna på internatskolan Preshute College ivriga att få ta värvning. Inte Henry Gaunt, som är emot kriget. Men när hans tyska mor ber honom göra det för att skydda familjen från spionmisstankar så anser han sig inte ha mycket till val. Nu slipper han åtminstone kämpa mot sina förbjudna känslor för sin bäste vän, Sidney Ellwood. Men det dröjer inte länge innan hans skolkamrater följer efter honom till skyttegravarna - även Ellwood.

Den här debutromanen hamnar definitivt på min lista över årets bästa böcker! Jag har läst många böcker om andra världskriget, som då oftast handlat om koncentrationslägren, men få böcker om första världskriget. Här tas vi med ned i skyttegravarna och får veta exakt hur eländigt och skrämmande det var. Den romantiska bilden många unga män hade om att ta värvning förändrades väldigt snabbt när de väl var på plats. Det är fullt begripligt att de som var med vid fronten förändrades som människor, konstigt vore det annars. Det är många gånger hjärtskärande läsning, men här finns också en hel del hopp. Kamratskapen bland soldaterna får stor betydelse och skildras på ett briljant sätt av Winn.

Det finns likheter med "Den hemliga historien" och "Döda poeters sällskap" och gillar man stämningen i de böckerna så är jag rätt säker på att man kommer att tycka om "In memoriam". Trots det till synes tunga ämnet så är boken lättläst och faktiskt svår att lägga ifrån sig. Texten "lättas upp" av dikter (Ellwood är poet), brev och tidningsurklipp med listor på döda och sårade. Relationen mellan Gaunt och Ellwood är fascinerande att följa, särskilt som homosexualitet var olagligt på den tiden. Ändå var det inte ovanligt att pojkar "fördrev tiden" med varandra och det var på något vis acceptabelt. Så länge man inte blev påkommen...

Det är oftast svårare att sätta ord på varför man älskar en bok, för hur man än försöker så hittar man sällan rätt resonemang. När jag läser igenom det jag skrivit så vet jag inte om jag kommer att övertyga någon om att det här är en bok som inte får missas. Jag får helt enkelt hoppas att många ändå väljer att plocka upp den!

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annabella's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this book fast not because it was incredible but the writing is easy to flick through. I thought I’d be more emotional at it but no tears were shed! It definitely shows the horrors of the war in both a physical and mental trauma sense, and I thought it sadness about how it permanently changed Ellwood‘s sense of loving Gaunt. When

Gaunt apparently died and Ellwood was moping

I thought it was a bit slow and didn’t know how else it could progress. The book feels not so much a love story but an account of how messed up the war efforts were and showing the intimate human relationships amongst a horrific situation. But from booktok etc it feels more advertised as a tragic mlm novel so that’s what I expected more.

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my_weird_bookish_heart's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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cwg's review against another edition

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Brilliant book which really made me feel…everything, I guess.

WW1-era Britain, private school facing mid-war. Bunch of British school boys sign up and go through hell.

Pleasant prose. Loved reading it. Rendition of war was poignant, not so much focus on the technicalities but the experiences themselves.

Result is that I appreciated the rendered characters. How they quickly come in and out of the narrative can be overwhelming at times, (hard to keep up with names) but it’s fitting in the nature of a war-era narrative. I think it was done well, overall. Even the ones who only get a bit of spotlight I could feel for. There’s a lot of mini-narratives you get to witness from beginning to end, each tale providing another perspective to the war. I felt a great sense of authenticity from it all.

And of course the main characters were great. I wasn’t quite sold on them at first, but quickly turned around as the novel went on. While I felt they didn't feel like real people, they, themselves, felt real---how they moved in this story's changing world reflecting something so...human.

I ended up feeling a lot for these characters. They were wonderful.

I may come back to this novel someday. It was lovely.

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gemloukay's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

When World War 1 breaks out, poetic Ellwood and classicist Gaunt, along with all their public school friends, enlist despite being underage. Gaunt is a little older and enlists early due to family pressure. Ellwood can’t stand to hear the letters from Gaunt sounding more and more resigned to death and enlists too. What follows is far more harrowing than either of them anticipated.

But their secret love for one another blossoms in the trenches and we’re left wondering whether they’ll survive to discover it for themselves. And if they do, what will happen since homosexuality was still illegal in England at that time?

It’s a stunning debut that made me root for both of the main characters alongside their ever dwindling group of friends. It’s horrifying to hear about life in the trenches and the major battles of the Great War but I realised in reading it that I don’t know much about it despite having family members that died in Gallipoli and the Somme. The numbers of dead is just staggering to think about.

Such a good book, and although it’s never going to be a cheery topic, it leaves you wanting them to survive and be able to celebrate their love for each other after the war has ended.

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