Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

119 reviews

themdash's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Sexism, Death, Animal death, Police brutality, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, Grief, and Religious bigotry

slahlum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Sexual content

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

hanpear's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative sad tense fast-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

4.25

my first kristin hannah book so i didn’t know what to expect. it was a beautiful story, and difficult 95% of the time, very gripping despite how sad & difficult it all was. i don’t think i could’ve pushed through it so quickly if i hadn’t been listening to it. 

plot: 3

i could have read a story about any of these characters doing anything and enjoyed it, so the plot itself felt pretty middling. i didn’t know where the story was headed most of the time, it felt slow in parts, others i felt were purely unecessary. and things happened that i didn’t like at all. plus it’s just really depressing.

characters: 5 

lovable characters who felt like real people. they were very flawed and often made the same mistakes, and had eventual character growth that felt very convincing and realistic. i especially loved elsa and rose. i appreciated the addition of loretta’s perspective. don’t even get me started on jack!!

world building: 5  

it’s historical fiction, the world was pre-built for the author but it was so thoroughly researched. the descriptions of food, the political environment, the different types of lives US Americans were living at the time. if this has been fantasy it would have been very clear as a reader with few gaps.

writing: 4.25 a little cheesy at moments, but overall very strong, the type of descriptive that really sets a scene. i know exactly what i’m looking and what my characters look like and where we are. some things did get repetitive.

overall enjoyment: 4.25

the subject matter brings down the score here, it’s hard to truly enjoy a book about living in seemingly endless poverty. but was i gripped the whole time? did i giggle a bit at certain moments? did i feel for those imaginary people? did i cry? no, but i could have. i loved the themes of family, mother & daughter relationships, coming of age (late in life, too) and overall getting a glimpse into the lives of what could have been real people in my country less than 100 years ago

overall score: 4.3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage

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

sarahfeller's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Sexism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Bullying, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Medical content, Police brutality, Excrement, and Miscarriage

chelly_reads's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Grief, Abandonment, and Death

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

I always knew from the name of the period that the Great Depression was a very hard time but wow this book took on that and tripled it. 

Elsa Martinelli life had never been one of joy but when the 30’s hit her life on the dust bowl turn devastating. The farm is failing, her husband is a drunk and the land is killing the crops, animals and her children. She must make a decision to attempt to save them. 

This novel depicts the physical, mental and emotional struggle of one family in the depression. Told in a duel point of view of mother and daughter it is a beautiful tale of heartache, determination and fear. 

The imagery makes you taste and feel the dry heat and dust. You really are transported to the time. 

It also highlights how easily human nature can attack an outsider or newcomer and how easy people can take on the “Us and Them” mentality to justify cruelty and injustice. 

Warning I did tear up a couple of times so be aware if reading in public. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Bullying

Moderate: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Grief, Animal death, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, and Violence

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

baraya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Death, Abandonment, Miscarriage, Animal death, Pregnancy, and Violence