Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Os Quatro Ventos by Kristin Hannah

74 reviews

jennaviolet's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Miscarriage, and Classism

Moderate: Blood, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Violence, Grief, Excrement, Animal death, Medical content, and Gun violence

chloewakham's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring slow-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

5.0

This book is a beautiful tale of a family growing together in the most difficult of circumstances. Elsa's resilience in the face of everything she encounters makes for a moving story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Child death

slahlum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

hanpear's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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? Yes

4.25

my first kristin hannah book so i didn’t know what to expect. it was a beautiful story, and difficult 95% of the time, very gripping despite how sad & difficult it all was. i don’t think i could’ve pushed through it so quickly if i hadn’t been listening to it. 

plot: 3

i could have read a story about any of these characters doing anything and enjoyed it, so the plot itself felt pretty middling. i didn’t know where the story was headed most of the time, it felt slow in parts, others i felt were purely unecessary. and things happened that i didn’t like at all. plus it’s just really depressing.

characters: 5 

lovable characters who felt like real people. they were very flawed and often made the same mistakes, and had eventual character growth that felt very convincing and realistic. i especially loved elsa and rose. i appreciated the addition of loretta’s perspective. don’t even get me started on jack!!

world building: 5  

it’s historical fiction, the world was pre-built for the author but it was so thoroughly researched. the descriptions of food, the political environment, the different types of lives US Americans were living at the time. if this has been fantasy it would have been very clear as a reader with few gaps.

writing: 4.25 a little cheesy at moments, but overall very strong, the type of descriptive that really sets a scene. i know exactly what i’m looking and what my characters look like and where we are. some things did get repetitive.

overall enjoyment: 4.25

the subject matter brings down the score here, it’s hard to truly enjoy a book about living in seemingly endless poverty. but was i gripped the whole time? did i giggle a bit at certain moments? did i feel for those imaginary people? did i cry? no, but i could have. i loved the themes of family, mother & daughter relationships, coming of age (late in life, too) and overall getting a glimpse into the lives of what could have been real people in my country less than 100 years ago

overall score: 4.3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage

astoriareader's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

• It is the 1920s in a small farming community in the Texas Panhandle. Elsa Martinelli grew up in a wealthy family, who never appreciated her & make her feel hard to love. At age 25, she hooks up with Rafe, and she winds up pregnant. They get married, and she moves in with Rafe and his parents, Rosa and Tony, on their farm. 
• Fast forward, it is 1930s. Along the stock market crash & The Great Depression, there are also several years of drought and The Dust Bowl. Elsa has two kids now, Ant & Lareda, and with no end in sight to the dust storms, Elsa abandon their home and flee to California where they hope work and a better life await. The book details what happens when the family arrives in California. 

MY THOUGHTS

• As my first read of 2024, I wanted to start off with a book by one of my favorite authors. This marks the fourth book I’ve read by Hannah, with the others being: The Great Alone, The Women, The Nightingale.
• Hannah is an expert at character development & writing strong female characters. I always learn something when reading her historical fictions. In this one, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about the Dust Bowl & migrants.
• I thoroughly enjoyed the bonds that develop among the characters in the book, and the imagery and vivid descriptions of the surroundings were also very well done.
• It is definitely a sweeping story, and it is a hard one to read.
• My only complaint about the book is all the characters were white, and I would have enjoyed different perspectives about the experiences of BIPOC folks.
• Kudos to Hannah for clearly spending a lot of time researching the era & the topics covered in the book.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️historical fiction with strong women as main characters. time period: Dust Bowl.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Grief, Animal death, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Chronic illness

sarahfeller's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Sexism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Medical content, Police brutality, Excrement, and Miscarriage

faduma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

crabbytaco's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Police brutality, Abandonment, and Animal death

Minor: Murder and Deportation

artmuseam's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

never in my entire life have i ugly cried because of a book before. i kid you not, almost every chapter of this book had me tearing up and the ending left me a sobbing, emotional wreck. this book touched me deeply with its hardships; when times of mere happiness or joy happened, i awaited the sadness and new adversity that would break it. i was torn by elsa’s story and the journey she made throughout her adulthood, learning what it meant to love in a world that hated her. this is my first kristin hannah novel that i’ve read, and it certainly won’t be the last. wow. 5/5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Gun violence

chelly_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Grief, Abandonment, and Death