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polkapunkband's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Minor: Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Sexism, Medical content, Car accident, Rape, and Sexual assault
maeverose's review against another edition
TL;DR: none of it grabbed my attention, the writing style irritated me, and it’s very depressing. Which is the point but if I’m not getting anything from it why would I put myself through that?
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this. On one hand I can see why people would like it, but it’s definitely not something that works for everyone and unfortunately it didn’t work for me.
To start, this book should come with about every content warning you can think of. It’s very dark. If you have a fear of death or struggle with suicidal thoughts I’d skip it, or at least go in prepared. I don’t have a fear of death and this book triggered my anxiety. There are lots of brutal and sad depictions of deaths, a lot of them thrown at you back to back. It’s a lot. Please check content warnings.
At one point there is a mention of jk rowling and harry potter. It wasn’t exactly positive or negative, but there is also a lot of language on motherhood that’s very tied to the ability to biologically reproduce and I saw zero acknowledgment of trans or non binary people, which for me is a bit of a red flag. I know nothing about this author so I’m not making any claims, it just gave me the ick so I wanted to mention it.
I’m not a fan of the writing style, and I feel like this is the type of book where you need to like the writing in order to like the book. It’s purposefully very repetitive and I get annoyed by repetition in books. It’s also very vulgar, which I don’t think is an objective issue I just personally really dislike excessively gross writing and this has a lot of that. There were certain quotes or chapters that I liked, but most of it really didn’t work for me.
Obviously I didn’t finish it but I’m not completely sure what the point of the book is. Other than a brief message about cherishing your life and accepting death as a part of life, which is a great message, but it doesn’t focus much on that. It jumped around a lot, to different deaths both fictional and I think some real ones, then switches to Death’s pov which is almost fable-like, then Wolf’s pov which focuses a lot on his grief and mental health issues. It switches between lyrical prose and poetry. It felt more concerned with aesthetics than an actual story or message, but being as I didn’t finish it I could be wrong about that.
Really disappointed tbh because I thought I’d love this :/ That’s on me.
I’ll end with two quotes that I did like:
Pg 45 “funny that, funny how we feel like we know things about people we never knew, isn’t it? We are puppets, we are children, without thinking we so often mouth the words our lips are taught.”
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Racism, Blood, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Excrement, and Vomit
Minor: Car accident, Slavery, War, Misogyny, and Fatphobia
Lots of descriptions of different deaths. Many of which are very violent or disturbing. In certain chapters they list different deaths back to back and it’s very intense.cjmrand's review against another edition
5.0
It's quite impressive to me that the poems struck a chord when I would never usually enjoy poetry, I think that shows just how impactful the content and the writing style was for me. I loved how Godden captured so many small things so accurately and described them so perfectly in a way that made the story feel so close to life in a good way: how England is written actually, for once, feels like the England I know - I wrote this in my notes while reading: "I really feel like Godden has just perfectly captured the modern day in England, all the tiny details are just. So. Good. Like yeah, of course there's the 'sweet smell of vapes' in the air - of course there fucking is". Plus, the references to Tory apathy and Grenfell and so much else without ever explicitly stating those things was so good.
Godden manages to bottle the real world and put in this book, especially with the main themes of the consistent undervaluing and disregarding of women and ethnic minorities in society, more so with women who are ethnic minorities, and even more so with black women. My notes from page 163:"'it is exhausting how much space men want and how much credit and control man wants to take for mankind' And here I am immediately assuming that the Doctor is male. The bias is so deeply ingrained in me, in all of us."
I want to buy this book and write in the margins and put names of the people I love in the back, and I NEVER want to write in my books. That's significant to me.
The only complaint I have about this book is the occasional overuse of profanity (I feel so old even typing out the word 'profanity', ugh) - what I mean by this is the repetition of one word to an excessive point one one page or so. The repetitive use of "cunt" and talking about fucking and stuff reminded me a bit of those modern art pieces that are meant solely to shock the audience. These parts made me feel a bit iffy, but while they did make me squirm in the moment, it's honestly easy to breeze past them with how good the rest of the book is.
This book is so damn good in every other way though - content, pace, format, every word - and I couldn't stop reading, I was always excited for more. Books about death are my thing right now, I think they provide comfort on such a taboo topic, and this one covers so much more. If you're in the right mental space for it, I would heavily recommend.
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent
leabhar_love's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping and Alcoholism
Minor: Car accident
sws_1319's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
altogether it was an interesting and unique read. I did find some of the book a little tedious and hard to get through, but overall the book was interesting. Enjoyed reading it!
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide
the tags have all been tagged in the explicit section. Although none are described in masses of detail, some of them did make me feel uncomfortable and they are themes that run throughout the book. The narrator, Wolf, struggles with mental health issues due to his past which relates to a lot of these tags. I would advise to read with caution, even though some of it isn’t explicit it is obviously hinted at and talked aboutsuzis_shelves's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief
rieviolet's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I think that when it worked for me, it worked really really well and I was left really impressed by the writing style and the profound and poignant exploration of a certain topic. However, when it didn't work, it really really didn't work for me and I just felt very confused and like the narrative style had been overdone a bit too much.
Also, some sections where the character of Death was talking sounded to me too much like an essay, maybe too much "telling, and not showing", not very subtly handled.
At times it felt a bit overly graphic (the list of content warnings is so long that, honestly, it'd be easier to say what is not included) and I'm not sure if it was really necessary for the story. So many examples of very brutal crimes are included and the section with example after example of different types of deaths is quite taxing to get through.
I think it was a bit of a mixed bag for me but I'm still glad to have tried something a bit out of of my literary comfort zone.
You grow and
become who you are
you grow into your shape
I could have been anything
but this was the shape the world
carved into me.
Graphic: Child death, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Blood, Suicide, Mental illness, Grief, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual content, Slavery, Physical abuse, Cursing, Cannibalism, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, and Racism
Minor: Vomit, Excrement, War, Torture, Fatphobia, Trafficking, Transphobia, and Addiction
katiewhocanread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Classism, Child death, Mental illness, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Child abuse
Minor: Cannibalism
funktious's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Misogyny
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
the_literarylinguist's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders