Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

21 reviews

pettywhaler's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Grief, and Hate crime

sestout's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual content, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, and Religious bigotry

tiffanykw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Rape, Murder, Car accident, and Gun violence

Minor: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Colonisation, and Grief

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Murder, Child death, Physical abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Colonisation, Death, Dementia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism

sarahholliday's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The non-five-star rating is completely down to my personal taste, because this is very clearly a masterpiece of a novel. 

I am definitely a plot-driven person, but I enjoy picking up the occasional character-focused story. Joe and his community are absolutely fascinating, and though at times I wished we could move outside of his limited first-person perspective, it was both haunting and magical to see the events of the novel through his eyes.

What stood out to me the most was the emotional rawness—Erdrich takes readers into the kinds of emotional landscapes that are suffocating and overwhelming, but leads them through in the myriad ways all humans turn to: avoidance, escape, drunkenness, attempts to maintain some sort of control.

I loved Erdrich's style enough that I'm eager to pick up some of her other novels, and I highly recommend The Round House to anyone looking for a deeply-felt story of family, injustice, courage, and friendship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Alcoholism, Murder, Cursing, Grief, Death, and Gun violence

bangishimokwe's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Torture, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual violence

illtakethenightshiftx's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

The Round House is an unflinching look at trauma and it’s effect on family and community. I loved the way Erdrich used a first-person adult narrator recounting events that happened in his youth. I found that it brought another level of reflection to an already mature character. Most of this novel was a gut punch, but it’s had moments of hilarity and joy that you could truly feel. I loved the way that memory and storytelling from elders was woven into the narrative - if you know me, I’m a SUCKER for when that device is used and used extremely well, much like in this story.

I really enjoyed this novel and I can’t wait to read her other works!

Please read the CW before starting this novel. There isn’t too much graphic content, but it could be triggering for some. Also, there aren’t any quotation marks denoting conversations or lines of dialogue, so that may took a few pages to get used to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Car accident

sam_fielder_137's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

I was mostly just bored. Since the main character is telling the story as an adult lawyer who's married, when we got to the climax, I knew everything would be okay. The stakes were low. The crime happened, they knew who did it. It was about justice, but didn't dive a lot into that aspect. I think the word "breast" was in the book more times than "justice" which is saying something. It was disturbing to read about a 13 year old boy's infatuation for his aunt, and the payoff for that was much too low.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Alcohol, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Grief, Cursing, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder and Kidnapping

pulpandprose's review

dark tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Colonisation, Grief, Rape, Domestic abuse, and Hate crime

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

al3xa's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Abandonment, Murder, Racism, and Alcoholism