Reviews tagging 'Child death'

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

4 reviews

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Confinement, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Grief, Lesbophobia, Child death, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, Racism, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Animal death, Dysphoria, and Religious bigotry

rockyroadbutch's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Sexual content

Minor: Dysphoria, Pregnancy, and Classism

i_cant_read429's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Child death, Suicide attempt, and Homophobia

Moderate: Transphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Bullying

Minor: Dysphoria

daisymaytwizell's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-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

4.5

McLemore writes every scene like they are telling a piece of a fairy tale, and their delicate descriptions compliment the magical themes of the story so perfectly. The setting feels whimsical but still holds itself together as a physical, believable community, while Sam and Miel's stories seem to wrap around it all.

This is definitely a more character-and-worldbuilding book than a plot-driven one - there is a building tension, but the novel relies heavily on the threads of connection between its characters and draws its progression from them, so it might not be the right style for everyone. But I enjoyed seeing a novel willing to use magic and explore it slowly, once again in the spaces between and around those characters. It's an interesting change for the genre, at least in what I have seen, and I look forward to reading more of McLemore's writing.

(I hesitate to make Miel and Sam's backstories a large part of this review, both for spoiler reasons and because I don't quite know I have the right to speak on them, but I would say that both are handled with grace and dignity for all parties involved, much to McLemore's credit.)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Blood, Child death, and Transphobia

Transphobia:

the Bonner girls threaten to reveal Sam's dead name and Miel describes how she believes the town will react. This does not actually happen and everyone Sam comes out to in the novel accepts him with kindness.