Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

4 reviews

kyaniteas's review against another edition

5.0

dark relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I have read this book so many times  over the years and it just scratches an itch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Death of parent, War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury

masha__me's review against another edition

3.75

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

foreverinastory's review against another edition

2.0

challenging slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I did not like this. I did not care about the characters one bit. I am going to forget everything I read and continue like I never read this

CWs: Adult/minor relationship, alcohol consumption, blood, child abuse (by a teacher), death, death of parent, emotional abuse, fire/fire injury, gun violence, homophobia, infidelity, injury/injury detail, misogyny, pedophilia/grooming, pregnacy, rape specifically marital rape, religious bigotry, sexism, sexual content, toxic relationship. Moderate: war, violence, mental illness (PTSD). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, War

chalkletters's review against another edition

4.0

emotional 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: No

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I picked up The Thorn Birds four years ago because it was mentioned in The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. I devoured it over the course of a week in a holiday cottage, and it packed an enormous emotional punch. I've been looking forward to rereading it ever since, which might seem odd because almost nothing nice happens in the entire 54-year span of the novel's plot. 

The Thorn Birds appeals to the part of me that signed up to take a module on Settler Identity: Fictions of Oz/Nz at university; it starts out as a story about coming to a new place and trying to make a life there. All the characters' lives are limited in some way - by class, by money, by gender. It's not even as if the characters band together to overcome these problems, because most of the relationships in the book are strained to some degree.

Colleen McCullough makes these tragedies cathartic, rather than depressing. The characters and their emotions feel incredibly well-observed and realistic. The prose has just the right balance between descriptions, interior thoughts, action and dialogue. Specific scenes linger in the memory so that, on rereading, I found myself recalling them just before they happened and was able to see the foreshadowing which I missed when I didn't know what was coming. Even though these events no longer came as a surprise, they were still able to bring on a storm of tears.

Reading this so close after Brideshead Revisited, it struck me that Colleen McCullough does a better job at making Catholicism understandable to someone who wasn't brought up with it than Evelyn Waugh does, as well as offering a more sympathetic portrayal. 

Though I'm not a reader who loves or goes looking for tragedy, The Thorn Birds is such an incredibly satisfying novel that I know I'll return to it again and again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Pregnancy