Reviews tagging Pregnancy

Hamnet, by Maggie O'Farrell

82 reviews

lydia_harrisx's review

emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infidelity, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual content

leonineliterature's review against another edition

emotional 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? No

5.0

So perfect - will come back to add a morein depth review for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Pregnancy

beauvisseau'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The prose is absolutely gorgeous, the characters are intricate and the plot is heartbreaking. One of the best audiobooks I have listened to. How the author managed to put the women in Shakespeare's life at the forefront, not even naming him, was amazing. The magical realism that the writer implemented was charming and fun. The jumps in time made me want to keep on reading, just like the great variation in chapter lengths did. A great representation of 'normal' lives with thematically intricate stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical content, Gore, Emotional abuse, Child death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexism, Animal death, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Infidelity

bandysbooks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

Going into Hamnet, I was a bit skeptical. I love historical fiction and literary fiction, but something about it just didn't seem all that appealing to me. Finally, I broke down and decided to give it a try. I'm pretty happy that I did. I don't think this was perfect, but it was a good read.

This story follows Agnes (Anne) as she marries and then settles down with William Shakespeare. They have three children together, one of which dies due to the plague, and eventually becomes the inspiration for Hamlet. While William is in London writing plays, Agnes is grieving and trying to survive. The main focus of the story is really her grief and what she goes through after Hamnet's death. 

The writing in this was very lovely. I was surprised at how flowery it was considering the darkness of the content. It was an interesting contrast, but one that I think worked fairly well. 

The things that kept this from being a higher rating are as follows:
- The description was overdone at points. Others have mentioned this in great detail, but descriptions always come in sets of three. It wasn't simply good. It was magnificent, beautiful, and lovely. This can work when used sparingly, but it's repeated too much throughout the book. 
- Agnes is made into an almost-fae. She's sort of a wilderwoman who is at one with nature, makes herbal remedies, and intuits things before they happen. I suppose it was an attempt to make her standout, but it felt unnecessary. It gave me a bit of Mary Sue vibes initially because she's portrayed as innately better than the other women without much proof. 
-Shakespeare is never given a name. I found this to be an odd choice since I'm pretty sure 95% of the people reading this book understand it's about William Shakespeare's wife and children. I don't think it added to the narration by leaving his name out.

All in all, if you like historical fiction and have a particular interest in Shakespeare, you may enjoy this book. Just beware that it isn't written in straightforward narration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, and Pregnancy

solybugs's review

emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

3.75

To be honest, for a book that is supposed to ignore Shakespeare and only focus on his family... He gets wayyyy too many pages either from his point of view or from the point of view of someone else talking to him. The only reason why I chose this book, since it's not usually my preferred genre, was to hear the story of his family and to focus on the people that history often glosses over. But then to hear so much about him gets pretty tiring. But, Hamnet made up for it with very descriptive and flowery writing that perfectly fit the style and time period of the book along with accurate descriptions of loss, emotional pain, and depression (or rather the point of view from an outsider, who is close to someone who has depression. Being that myself, I really loved the way Maggie O'Farell accurately described the feeling of not being able to help someone while they're going through that. Extremely relatable). 3.75/5, meh. Mostly meh, has some good parts tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Child death, and Death

Minor: Blood, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

There are mentions of depression and cheating on spouses

geloby's review against another edition

sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Death, and Animal death

niaaaaa's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Pregnancy, Abandonment, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Classism and Violence

evieolive's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

5.0

Truly one of the best things I've ever read, the characters and their experiences with grief were so painfully vivid

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Animal death, and Body horror

ekmook's review against another edition

dark 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Infidelity and Pregnancy

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Injury/injury detail, Animal death, Infidelity, Child abuse, Sexual content, and Violence