Reviews tagging 'Death'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

220 reviews

ash_is_reading_books's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The biggest problem I have with people reccomending this novel is that it's described as a romance. While love and passion is a theme, it's by no means a story about love - it's more about abuse, co-dependancy and how someone can be a victim of their own upbringing

With it's beautiful prose, excellent use of pathetic fallacy and powerful themes, it's perfect for those looking for a challenge

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death and Child abuse

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy fucking shit this nocked my socks off! The prose are phenomenal & moving. Not bad for a virgin with no friends who died at 30 from TB 5🪦

Joanne Froggatt also fucking slayed the audiobook 5🪦

NB Nelly doesn’t get paid enough to deal with all the BS from the Lintons + Earnshaws - get a better employer girl! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexism, Abandonment, Ableism, Suicide, Blood, Chronic illness, Incest, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Child death, Classism, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

ismildlypoetic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Three stars means I liked the book! (tbh as i mull over it in the coming weeks, it'll probably grow higher)

Okay okay okay, so this needs a rant.
So I tried reading this book a few years ago, got ten pages in, and said nope. I just opened it again, and it took thirty pages of me Hating it, but I kept going anyways. I think I had a slow-burn relationship with this book.

If you're not used to reading classics, the language took a While to get used to.

Anyways, actual thought time: even for five-star books, it's very very rare that I care about how a book will end. But for some reason, this book had me Gripping the pages; needed to know how it ended and what becomes of the characters.

So even for how much I honestly didn't love 90% of the characters (they all pretty much annoyed me) and how I didn't care about certain plotlines, the tidbit of me caring how it ended stood out dramatically.

I also loved that it followed an entire family for like two generations. Stories like that, where you build a World, not just a couple moments, are my favorite, and I don't think I've ever actually read one before in a book.

I will say, my favorite characters were

Catherine (junior), Nelly, and most importantly, Heathcliff. I have no idea why, but even when Cathy Jr. and Nelly were annoying me, even in his absolute worst moments, Heathcliff had this depth to him that even if I hated, I cared for. He was the perfect villain (or anti-hero, in my case)

.

Alright, that was my rant. Would highly recommend if you're into classics, eh if you're not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, Classism, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty and Incest

A good ton of this was just because it was written in the 1800s, so like, there are 1800s societal standards. But the child abuse specifically was pretty hard to read.

susanna22's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

books_because_why_not's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.75

 To start off, I found the characters in this book to be insufferable. They were interesting, but awful people. I only liked two characters in the entire book, but they were not even the main character. It is fine to have characters who have flaws, but many of the characters were just terrible and had hardly any redeeming quality. At least, I want one main character to be likable, that’s all I ask. 

Also, this book put me in a really bad reading slump. I started this book in Early 2022 and finally got around to finishing it midway through 2023.The writing is very flowery and hard to understand in the present day. I had to look up summaries for chapters because I could not follow along. Brontë uses eye dialect (basically writing words misspelled to show how they were literally spoken) to convey Joseph’s yorkshire accent. This, however, made reading any of Joseph's dialogue absolutely unreadable. 

The story was fine I guess. It did not really capture me as a reader because it was kind of slow going. Many people describe this book as a romance, but I felt like this is not true to what I read. A lot of times character’s were physically assaulting each other. In my opinion, this story is more about Heathcliff’s revenge rather than a love story.

I really did not like this book and if you have similar tastes as me, I would avoid this book. I’m not saying “Wuthering Heights” is awful, it is considered a classic after all. It is just not my cup of tea and is the worst book I have read this year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

canyi's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

Read as part of a buddy read among friends so it’s more recreational/ to mock it as a romance. But my final opinion is that its not a romance to mock because

it’s not a romance but more of a horror, the true romance is not the “main” couple, they’re the source of the horror. The true romance in this book is the end couple, I guess you could look at it as a romance that blossomed from the pure evil doings of Heathcliff but it really doesn’t feel like it’s the main point.

Personally I prefer to read books where I like or enjoy the main characters so honestly it wouldn’t be my go to pick. However once I got past that I found it was actually a really easy/ captivating read once I acknowledged (not a major plot spoiler)

that it was not a romance but more of a horror.

. 

Despite the slow moving plot I felt compelled to finish it, at least just because I wanted to see if

Heathcliff is ever stopped

. Although I was inclined to give this a one star because I absolutely despised most of the characters, I don’t think I was supposed to like them. Honestly it’s easier to hate a character you’re supposed to hate than not liking a character you’re supposed to like.

3.5 stars because it wasn’t a bad story

just terrible people, although I will admit the rating would be lower if it didn’t have a somewhat happy ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Stalking, Bullying, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Classism, Death, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

the_quickening_tree's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Miserable plot, average writing, drags on more than is necessary. A classic, but not an enjoyable read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Death, and Grief

mistystar's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Death

armand's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

Moderate: Death

emmonsannae's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Rereading this for the second time (the first 6 years ago), I was surprised at how much more I enjoyed it. Most of the story is a dumpster fire: the characters are terrible and only get worse, the drama is excessive, and the Victorian depravity is unending; but the prose is witty and vivid and it’s a dumpster fire I couldn’t stop watching. I really appreciated the story’s ending, after 400 pages of sheer brutality—it was a relief to able to watch the only pitiable characters in the novel consciously break every cycle of evil and choose goodness. (It gets bonus points for being a perfect gothic “ghost” novel which ends up having much more to say about the ghosts we make for ourselves.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Death, Classism, Child abuse, and Mental illness