Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker

27 reviews

oceanelle's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Walker's writing is beautiful on a line level, and I'd like to read anything else she writes. With that said, I found the pacing leading up to

Aster's wedding

dragged, leaving the rest of

the sisters' deaths

feeling a bit rushed, aside from Rosalind. I also kept wondering what time period this was set in? Plus, I would've ultimately liked to have seen more of Lola on the page, and for the ending to feel more satisfying.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Rape, Suicide, Mental illness, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, and Death

jillaay_h's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Self harm, Medical content, Death, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

town_scar's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Just an incredible piece of work. No notes. I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual content, Sexism, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Rape, Blood, Alcoholism, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide, Homophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Racism, Cursing, Cancer, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Cultural appropriation, and Death

amandadelbrocco's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 This definitely had a lot of parallels to The Virgin Suicides but in the best way. I loved the complex sister relationships in this story and the characters in general. I liked the eerie magical realism a lot but I was disappointed that the ending was so open ended. I definitely would like to reread this one day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

rachaelwho's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Bro... This was so. Boring. I thought I'd love it. I wanted to love it. It was so so so so so boring. So dry and so on the nose. Years and years and years long. Maybe I am just not Victorian enough for this.
Extremely skilled voice acting by the narrator.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Blood, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Suicide

ktrain3900's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

One part The Virgin Suicides, another part We Have Always Lived in the Castle, with dashes of Sarah Winchester and Georgia O'Keeffe, yet a wholly original, meandering, quasi-gothic tale. Spooky-fun in places, cringe-tastic in others, always enough intrigue to keep me turning pages. Despite the often otherworldly atmosphere, the familial relationships feel largely genuine. Not sure I entirely "got it" or that there was an "it" to get (there seems to be a few ways to read the book) and not entirely won over by the ending, but overall I liked this very much. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm, Death, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicide

laney_jpg's review

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

This is was incredibly heavy and sad, heartbreaking. But also so full of love and such a wonderful portrayal of the special kind of love between sisters and women in general. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Suicide

I would not recommend to anyone currently grieving or those who have lost siblings. Very heart wrenching family-loss throughout the entirety of the book.

brianna_moye's review

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault and Self harm

Minor: Gun violence and Suicide

lucybmn's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

Might edit this later, but just wanted to get these thoughts down. These are the complaints I held throughout reading this book:

- I might have gotten more out of it if the blurb and the opening chapter hadn't told me the whole plot. If what happened to the sisters was more of a surprise. This is part of why it felt so slow for me. It just felt like a long way to say what had already been summarized and I was waiting for something new to happen... and nothing really did.
- I somewhat wish that the Iris Chapel/Sylvia Wren perspectives had been more mixed together. It felt like an awfully long time to wait to get back to the protagonist we were first introduced to (even if they are the same person).
- While I appreciate the feminist themes and the critique of the treatment of women, I found it extremely heavy-handed and also completely mystifying. Which was maybe the point but didn't work for me. Why this family? Why Belinda's line? What was it all for? And why did it happen this way?
- Lastly, it seemed like the gun legacy and the victim ghosts were going to be a much bigger part of the story, and that was interesting to me, but it was disappointingly sidelined.

Okay that is a lot of complaints lol, this wasn't my favorite book. But despite all of that, I did find it interesting and well-written, and I was invested in Iris's story. Just wish it had been executed a bit differently.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Self harm