Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

100 reviews

sehwa's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

I haven't read a book quite like this before. Not all that much happens in the plot, it's just a lovely storytelling of the past and present. Maggie's writing is absolutely wonderful, it took me a few pages to get used to it but it was a joy to read and I was never bored. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual content, Bullying, and Violence

lena_and_her_books's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Grief, Pregnancy, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

sionnac's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? No

4.0

I loved the writing when it touched on the natural world (and the supernatural). Very sad and the ending was a little strange and unsatisfying. But overall I liked it. Narrator Ell Potter was good, I listened to audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual content

aehc's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Child death

lchelle_bester's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

Minor: Domestic abuse

honeycrispp's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

A deeply emotional, enthralling and immersive work of historical fiction set during the Black Death. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Child death, Grief, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Blood, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death and Gaslighting

mangogo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book has raised the standard for five-star novels. Beautiful and heartbreaking in the fullest sense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual content

northernlitreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

I really didn’t think I’d like this book at first but wow, did that change. I know it’s fictional but what a believable story. It’s an amazing exploration of fried and people living their lives in a way that is out of the status quo and I just adored it. I really think people will be reading this in classrooms in the future. (I would also argue that if you want to get into reading classics but find them too slow or descriptive this would be a great place to start.) Also, just a moment to appreciate Bartholomew - bless him for being a good brother.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

 Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 🧤
🌟🌟🌟🌟

💀 The plot: Stratford, 1596. An 11-year-old boy is desperately trying to find help for his sister, who has fallen ill. His mother is out of reach on the edge of town, his father even further away in London. No one knows yet that this boy will not survive the week - or that three years later, his father will give his name to one of the most famous plays ever written.

Hamnet is a feat of imagination from start to finish. It's vivid, it's moving. It's wildly overwritten at times - a hand movement or journey from room to room might take a full page - but it does something I think is really hard to do: it brings a famous person from history fully to life. Shakespeare is a character we know little about while having a huge idea of him in our collective consciousness, and O'Farrell writes him as just a man. A son, a husband, a father. A Latin tutor. Someone real, who you can feel for.

The result is a book that feels like a look into history with a lower-case "h". O'Farrell's not so much interested in the origins of Hamlet the play or in Shakespeare's artistic genius, but in the profound grief its name suggests for Hamnet the boy, and in helping her reader live that loss alongside his family. It's a novel that is both much bigger and much smaller than the question of how or why Shakespeare wrote, and I think that's why I liked it.

🦉 Read it for a complex portrait of a Midlands hero (big up Billy Shakes), deeply-felt characterisation, and if you want a nice big cry.

🚫 Avoid it if you find excessive description or a slow pace exhausting (I love a nice slow novel, but this tested me at points!) - also if you're not in a place to read about child death or pregnancy at the moment.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

theayeaye's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A beautiful meditation on grief, loss and family. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Medical trauma