Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

156 reviews

gogglor's review

hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

3.75

Been looking for something like House on the Cerulean Sea that doesn’t turn into a Hallmark movie, and this is it. Took a really long time to get going and it did sometimes veer into sappy, but on the whole it was a very sweet book and I enjoyed reading it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism and Pedophilia

anazap's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

kpflea's review

adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-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

LOVED this book. Emotional, heart-pounding, romantic, exciting; there are not enough words in my dictionary to describe the feelings this book gave me. MUST READ!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage

notbrhymes's review

emotional hopeful

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

5.0

I cried my way through this book.
What a beautiful, beautiful story brimming with love and whimsy and so much humanity. My heart was broken and repaired multiple times throughout this novel and I think it is such a feat when an author can accomplish that while also having an otherwise interesting story. 
I read this in one sitting and I couldn’t be happier that I decided to ignore the other books that I had due back to the library much sooner & I picked this one up instead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer

mollywill's review

adventurous hopeful fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Abandonment

Moderate: Drug abuse, Miscarriage, and Medical trauma

Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual violence

knightylight's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia and Pedophilia

This book feels like a coming of age movie- but if coming of age happened when you were 26+- mixed with the feeling of watching a Hallmark Christmas Movie. There's a lot of heavy themes here, but there's also a lot of heart and fun moments too. A lot of these characters have been through a lot of terrible things- sadly not anything unusual in our day and age. But despite all of it, it's definitely a story about hope, and "finding your village" as the story puts it. This book is a good contemporary fiction for those wanting to be reminded of the importance of community and making wild wishes

yarnarh's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s a wonderful cozy book. Things I have issues with

- The way Lucy was so obsessed with Christopher. It doesn’t scream I love you, more like I’m obsessed and I can’t live without you.
- The age gap between Lucy and Hugo. 8 years age gap is quite a lot. I mean it make sense that Hugo have to be 21 to make his own decision and live on an island with an old man. But 13 and 21 feels like a huge gap. 
- luring kids to his clock island. He is an adult. He should know how gullible and naive little kids are. And if a Hogwarts letter come to my house as a kid I would have do whatever I can to get there.

Other than that, I love the book. Heartwarming, and magical

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Minor: Incest

katherina_lei's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

4.75

This was one of my favorite books I've read in a while. It was interesting, sweet, and overall just a feel good book. The little puzzles reminded me a bit of "The Westing Game" at first, but it diverged into less of a puzzle or mystery fairly early on. The one thing I didn't like about this book was that the way that Lucy's desire to adopt Christopher was portrayed. It came off as obsessive, and it kind of gave me the ick, despite the fact that it was (I think) supposed to be a sweet parent/child relationship. I didn't love that Lucy was convinced she could never be happy until she was a mother, and kind of wallowed there for the majority of the book. Overall, and despite that, I really loved this book and would highly recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Miscarriage

milenasbooknook's review

hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, and Death of parent

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder