Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

77 reviews

sarahflanders's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Classism, Death of parent, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Grief, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Violence

lauren_r's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Physical abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Police brutality

ssjd411's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Sad, bleak and depressing. I had very little knowledge of this history and did learn a lot. The starvation was hard to read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Violence, Death of parent, Slavery, Child death, and Grief

ehamlett's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Classism

Moderate: Police brutality and Violence

Minor: Child death and Death

kayleajayne's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

I didn’t like the part about Dalhart, Texas. The main character’s family had been in Texas for five generations, but the Civil War house in Dalhart is just not accurate. I was born in the Texas Panhandle. Those towns were not established until the late 1890s and even early 1900s after the rail road made life there possible. Little details like the Mexican maid aren’t right. Even the wealthiest people in these towns didn’t really have maids, and if they did they  weren’t  Mexican. This far north didn’t see Mexican immigration until way later, after WWII. And it is so far north of land where  Mexican people historically had lived since the 1500s. I know it’s historical fiction, but since I live in the area of the Dust Bowl, it irked me a little. But aside from that, the book is beautifully written to capture and weave a story about Okies and those who tried to escape destruction in the Dust Bowl. It is heartbreaking but well done. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility, Violence, Animal death, Police brutality, Death, and Grief

jdubbs1110's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Grief

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, and Violence

bookswithnichol's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.5

This has to be the most depressing book I’ve ever read..

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Death of parent, Sexism, Bullying, and Death

annikamanika's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Four Winds. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to share my thoughts on it in a way that would meaningfully inform your decisions to read it. I just started typing this in a text to my book club, and I also figured it was appropriate here.

I was in tears within the first few chapters, and I found myself in spontaneous tears repeatedly. Some of it was the author’s intention, and some of it was how I perceived it through a sense of relating to my own life.

The book opens about 10 years before the Depression and the Dustbowl, and it centers around a young woman (Elsa) who is constantly made to feel and told outright that she is unlovable and even unlikable the way she is by her parents and her sisters. Their highest aspiration for her is to live a quiet life, alone in her parents' home. It centers around how Elsa learns to love herself, how she finds her voice, and how her childhood informs her adult choices.

I HAAATED the way it ended, but it makes sense. It is tragic and has many triggers, but it is beautiful.

I will also mention that I listened to this as an audio book which has commentary from the author as bonus material. I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Classism, Death of parent, Child death, Violence, Gun violence, Grief, Sexism, Abandonment, Pregnancy, and Xenophobia

Minor: Police brutality and Sexual content

jennaviolet's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Violence, Grief, Excrement, Animal death, Medical content, and Gun violence