Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Himmel und Hölle

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Himmel und Hölle by Malorie Blackman

43 reviews

clhtdr's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

eveattwood's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional informative reflective 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

3.0

Read this as part of a module on teen fiction & I'm really torn in terms of how to rate it. The plot definitely picked up near the end & became more interesting to read, but the beginning was difficult to get into.

Things I enjoyed about this book:

The concept is the most interesting part about this book, reversing the racism & discrimination black people have experienced, and instead envisioning them as the ones with the most power & influence in society. This means white characters or 'noughts' become the people who are looked down upon, or have historically been discriminated against. I think this would definitely be a good resource for teaching kids/teens about racism & the importance of listening to other peoples' experiences & showing them empathy
I think the portrayal of how trauma, stress & constant racism affects Callum is done well & how this impacts him/his decisions later in the book

Things I didn't love about this book/could be improved:

I know this is a YA book so it is targeted for a younger audience, but the writing of this book often felt v childish to the point that it took me out of the story or made me cringe. The povs were so hard to get fully invested in as the characters often came out with such strange phrases
There's a lot of telling & not showing in this book, particularly in the first 2/3s. We hear a lot from Callum & Sephy about how they feel or things that happened, but not always in the moment. A lot of it feels v summarised
The relationship as a whole just fell pretty flat for me. I feel like there wasn't enough build up or flashbacks shown to show how close they were or why they liked each other

Content Warnings

reggiereading's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

great book, i really liked it, but just dwel on this for a moment:
he's 15, she's 13/14.
(timeskip)
he's 19, she's 17.
i have no doubt that they do care about each other and their relationship is real but i just cringe when i think about it.

Content Warnings

amylovesbooksandyarn's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

I saw the BBC series of this and really liked it so have been looking to read to book for a while.

I listened to this on audio and it took me a while to get into in the younger years but as the characters got older it really started to enhance the story.

This is a YA book but it covers some very serious topics, the justice system, social inequality, racism, suicide, the death penalty to name a few.

The story is told from both Sephie and Callums perspective and we get their thoughts and emotions. The inner monologue is always something you can have in books but not as easily in TV format so this does create a more emotive read rather than watch.

There were bits I didn't see coming which is always great in a read. I would definitely get the next in the series

Content Warnings