Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

47 reviews

maddyontheoffbeat's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.25

This book was very emotional and made me cry a lot. There are two intertwining timelines, one more focused on the parents and one more focused on the children. That being said, the main character of this book is definitely Agnes, Shakespeare's wife, and Hamnet's mother. The writing style was very lyrical and pretty, and there are certainly some lines in there that deserve a good ole fashioned annotatin'

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy and Child death

Minor: Animal death

lkbooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Infidelity and Misogyny

hannahhansa's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Slow, too much indirect speech, but still interesting to discover the story of Shakespeare’s family.  I really enjoyed the descriptions of the characters’ thoughts and feeling and how they process tragedy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Animal death, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Terminal illness

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

Minor: Dementia and Slavery

sarah984's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

1.0

I liked the idea behind this book, of centring the family around a famous man when those people are generally forgotten, but I did not like the actual experience of reading it.

The writing is repetitious and florid (I get that it's for emphasis but some paragraphs just felt like lists of synonyms) and the characterization of Anne (Agnes) as this kind of stereotypical "witchy" wise woman was annoying. Her supernatural ability to randomly know things seemed like a literary device to tell information the author didn't know how to show. The vaguely supernatural cause of Hamnet’s death was also stupid. If this wasn't billed as straight historical fiction this probably wouldn't bug me so much, but it is and it does.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion, Infidelity, and Racial slurs

zogg's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

tashayns's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death and Rape