Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

9 reviews

sophia_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Grief, Religious bigotry, Violence, Xenophobia, and Death

astoriareader's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

• It is the 1920s in a small farming community in the Texas Panhandle. Elsa Martinelli grew up in a wealthy family, who never appreciated her & make her feel hard to love. At age 25, she hooks up with Rafe, and she winds up pregnant. They get married, and she moves in with Rafe and his parents, Rosa and Tony, on their farm. 
• Fast forward, it is 1930s. Along the stock market crash & The Great Depression, there are also several years of drought and The Dust Bowl. Elsa has two kids now, Ant & Lareda, and with no end in sight to the dust storms, Elsa abandon their home and flee to California where they hope work and a better life await. The book details what happens when the family arrives in California. 

MY THOUGHTS

• As my first read of 2024, I wanted to start off with a book by one of my favorite authors. This marks the fourth book I’ve read by Hannah, with the others being: The Great Alone, The Women, The Nightingale.
• Hannah is an expert at character development & writing strong female characters. I always learn something when reading her historical fictions. In this one, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about the Dust Bowl & migrants.
• I thoroughly enjoyed the bonds that develop among the characters in the book, and the imagery and vivid descriptions of the surroundings were also very well done.
• It is definitely a sweeping story, and it is a hard one to read.
• My only complaint about the book is all the characters were white, and I would have enjoyed different perspectives about the experiences of BIPOC folks.
• Kudos to Hannah for clearly spending a lot of time researching the era & the topics covered in the book.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️historical fiction with strong women as main characters. time period: Dust Bowl.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Grief, Animal death, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Chronic illness

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

3.75

So freaking sad, but good! It’s really a story about the love of a mother during the hardships of the Great Depression. It’s told through the perspectives of a mother and her 13 year old daughter. So well done, but sad af. 

Historical Fiction, Emotional Trauma, Mother’s Love, 1 🔥

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Animal death, Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Police brutality

Minor: War and Sexual content

franklola's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Sexism, Chronic illness, Bullying, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Classism, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Animal death, and Child death

hhwanghyunjin's review

emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

4.25

     As a history major, I always appreciate a well-written historical fiction novel, and Kristin Hannah's "The Four Winds" certainly delivers. Set during the Great Depression, the novel explores the experiences of one family in Texas as they struggle to survive amidst the Dust Bowl and the economic devastation of the era.

    Hannah's writing is vivid and immersive, transporting readers to a time and place that feels both familiar and distant. The characters are richly drawn and sympathetic, particularly the protagonist, Elsa, who must confront incredible hardship and adversity in order to keep her family together.

      At times, the novel can be bleak and harrowing, but there is also a sense of resilience and hope that pervades the story. Hannah does an excellent job of balancing the harsh realities of the time period with moments of beauty and tenderness.

      Overall, I found "The Four Winds" to be a powerful and moving novel that offers a compelling portrait of a difficult time in American history. It's not always an easy read, but it's a rewarding one that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in the genre. I would give it a solid 4.25 out of 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Racial slurs, Addiction, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing and Sexual content

fayeferre's review against another edition

Just for me, it was too depressing with such little hope.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Grief, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal death

anasilva's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.75

My first Kristin Hannah book, after hearing great praises for her work. It didn’t work for me. Reading this felt like and exaggeration of sad misfortunes thrown into a predictable, too long book. I enjoyed reading about the Dust Bowl and what it represented, but the plot and characters were underdeveloped and very flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Miscarriage, Death, Chronic illness, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Police brutality

corriejn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Move over, Grapes of Wrath. I got through this entire book without realizing it's by the author of "The Nightingale," but I'm not surprised-- similar depth of characters and bringing to life historical settings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Medical content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Minor: Vomit

The audiobook version includes a really lovely short interview with the author and the narrator, that sheds interesting light on the process of writing the book and creating the characters, as well as the process of bringing the story to life via the audiobook narration.

planreadrepeat's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad

• 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

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Police brutality, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Medical trauma, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry