Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Homecoming by Kate Morton

26 reviews

avisreadsandreads's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I've read all of Kate Morton's books and this is my least favourite by far. It's slow (and not in a good way), and I saw one of the twists coming from a mile away. It was only the ending (which did manage to shock and move me) that saved the book from a lower rating. I do think both the author and the main character were way too forgiving of one of the other characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Child death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Mental illness, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Grief, and Suicide

Minor: War, Abortion, and Dementia

imjustadow's review

challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad

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

5.0

This book is heavy, but it is so much more than that. It's family, it's generational trauma, it's a literary fiction novel that wraps around a fictional true crime book about a cold case that was never solved, it's realizing that decisions made decades ago that were never forgiven were more nuanced than was given credit for, it's reconnecting, it's love when you're doing the best that you can, it's secrets, it's pain, but ultimately it's so so beautiful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Murder, Grief, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Infertility, Suicide, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Minor: Abortion

anne_reader's review

emotional mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, Grief, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Animal death, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, and Infertility

dkamada's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Wonderful book but the pacing was not the best. The first 30% is really slow and the majority of the plot twists are in the last 5-10%, but really interesting from multiple perspectives revealing the plot and the book within a book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Infertility, and Kidnapping

katie_arce's review

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Child death, and Miscarriage

gracescanlon's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Pregnancy, Suicide, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Ableism

Minor: War, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Forced institutionalization

cmklaft's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Infidelity, Suicide, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment

stephs_cozycorner's review against another edition

5.0

This extraordinary book, sitting at 560 pages, takes you on a beautifully narrated journey through multiple generations in South Australia.

Kate Morton does such a fantastic job in her descriptions that you feel completely immersed in the story, transported to another time and place. 

The slow burn of this novel pays off and when you think you may have finally figured out this story you are hit with a few more surprises in the end.   

𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 also has a book within a book called 𝙰𝚜 𝙸𝚏 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚆𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚙, and while this usually doesn’t work for me as it can become quite confusing, it is done exceptionally well here.   In fact, I feel the book within a book actually enhances the narrative.  

Overall this was an exceptionally written, atmospheric and mesmerizing slow burn historical fiction story that I highly recommend!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada and Tandem Collective Global for a gifted copy of the book. 



⚠️ Trigger warnings:
Murder/Suicide. Death of a child.  Loss.  Grief. Infidelity. Postpartum Depression.  Depression.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Suicide, and Infidelity

dismantlethepatriarchy23's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

4.7 ⭐️
What a crazy plot twist! This is a story where the plot twist completely reverses the presumption of the entire story. There is amazing character development, great detail and very descriptive story telling. You feel as if you could have been there to experience this tragedy among them. It reflects on the nuances of being a mother, and what it means for children/a child to need their mother. It has so many individual details that seem to tie together in a perfect bow at the end, but yet you feel as if this could have happened in real life. 

It causes you to question yourself and your own morals; how much does forgiveness matter to you when you can’t change the past? How can a loving person be so deceitful? And where does it cross the line? How can the “truth” be so wrong, and is it worth repairing years later when it won’t change anything? 

This is a book focused on family tragedy and secrets, identity, motherhood, forgiveness, sad memories, grief and loss, guilt, and unforgivable actions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child death, Death, and Grief

Minor: Animal death and Infidelity

graceolivia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I begrudgingly finished it mostly to find out if my initial theory was right, one of the twists is very obvious the other seemed underdeveloped. As a whole it felt like the pacing was off, it was very slow until the last 3 or 4 chapters which attempted to answer all of the questions in quick succession. I think it would have benefited from more time spent with the characters coming to terms with the developments and less specific details and time in the first three quarters of the book.  

It really frustrated me that Nora was never considered to be incredibly manipulative, Jess seems to forgive her instantly for taking her away from her mother. Polly felt like she should have been the main character, I was far more interested in her thoughts and experiences. It seemed odd that her and Jess never had a proper conversation about why she actually left her with Nora. The pillow lie (x2) never gets acknowledged and apparently multiple people knew Isobel was innocent and said nothing. Marcus seemingly either forgives Meg for killing his best friend and his brothers girlfriend or doesn’t figure out it was her, either way it’s not believable. The idea that the whole thing happened as a snap decision to ‘punish’ Isobel also doesn’t make sense as it doesn’t align with Megs personality, it would be far more believable that Nora did it.

 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Infertility, Infidelity, and Kidnapping