Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

There There by Tommy Orange

42 reviews

mtnest's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Cursing, Racism, Rape, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, and Toxic friendship

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

God, I devoured this book. So intense, so real, so complex. If you're thinking about reading this book, just do it. An important book about Native communities and just all communities. How we've failed our neighbors on a systemic level since the inception of this country that was built on stolen land.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Classism, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Toxic relationship, Child death, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Drug abuse, Racism, Abortion, Bullying, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

chaosandwildflowers's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

The idea of this book is so phenomenal; it's a character study focused on the diverse range of life experiences within the Native American community, while simultaneously drawing attention to the fact that a growing number of Native Americans now live in cities - not on reservations. It explores various themes, including self-discovery, identity, self-loathing, heritage, parental expectations, toxic/abusive relationships, forgiveness, etc etc etc. The book also tells different character perspectives in different styles, including every thing from first to second to third person POVs, past and present verb tenses, and various other tone shifts used to distinguish characters from one another.

One of Tommy Orange's greatest strengths is in his writing and his understanding of the human psyche. The writing truly is beautiful, even feeling poetic in some places, and though the cast of characters is vast, he takes time to explore each of them in at least a little bit of depth.

However, I do think the book tried to do too much in too little space. Some characters feel extremely similar, making their chapters feel repetitive, and the sheer number of characters made it difficult to really delve into more than a few of them. I believe this book should have either streamlined its plot to fit the space or allowed itself more pages to really explore the themes. I also felt like the story ended very abruptly, with a few loose ends and unexplained plot points.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this book. Hard stop. I think it's important to read, especially in our current society. But I'd also suggest that readers go into it expecting to focus more on the characters than on an extremely coherent plot. Solid 3/5 stars!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, and Rape

clare072's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Gun violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Fatphobia, Cancer, Car accident, Genocide, Abortion, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

cassielaj's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Absolutely stunning. This book features quite a few characters, each of whom has a fully crafted perspective and story. The author is able to pack so much emotion and story into each chapter, and he does an incredible job of weaving these stories and characters together. The book is a snapshot of the characters’ lives, but imbued with the depth of years, decades, generations of the stories that came before. The pace steadily increases throughout, giving this book a beautiful sense of flow and forward momentum. This book will be a classic

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Blood, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Fatphobia, Rape, and Pregnancy

This book is emotionally taxing, but so worth the read

gilnean's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Excrement, Murder, Gore, Death, Genocide, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Fatphobia, Cursing, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Child death, Alcoholism, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Suicide, Drug use, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Ableism, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Death of parent, Medical content, Car accident, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Torture, Abandonment, Abortion, Self harm, Classism, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child abuse, Mental illness, Body horror, and Religious bigotry

mekaylynn's review

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Grief, Mental illness, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Medical content, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Rape

kibbles15's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense 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

2.5

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I did not like this book.  There was way too much swearing for my taste.  Also, if the chapters were not labeled with their names, I would not have been able to tell the difference between most of the characters.  Pretty much, I felt like I was reading the viewpoint of 12 individuals with different problems, but the same personality; which made for a pretty flat read.  Since this book is mostly character driven, this made the story difficult to follow and enjoy.   

The prologue and interjections referring to the history of the Native Americans in the United States was actually very well written and thought provoking; the author obviously put a lot of thought and effort into the writing of those sections.  That being said, the author failed to connect the story to the prologue and interjections.  I spent most of the book waiting to find out why the prologue was included.  None of the trials that each character experienced really linked the characters with their Native American history. In fact, if you take out the fact that the people are going to a Pow-Wow, the troubles that each of the characters experience could have been that of any race in most urban areas.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Cursing, Gun violence, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Racism, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Blood

laurao's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Religious bigotry, Racism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Genocide, Fatphobia, Excrement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Car accident, Cancer, Body shaming, Blood, and Addiction

Minor: War and Xenophobia

The characters were numb and isolated. It’s an important topic, but it was just hard to read.

mommarex1221's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

😢

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Abortion, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Grief, Suicide, Colonisation, Abandonment, Addiction, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Self harm, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship