Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Girl at War by Sara Nović

10 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

It look me so long to read because I was in a slump and I wasn’t loving the writing style. It’s very difficult to write books from a young child’s POV and not have it be telling over showing (I rarely see this child narrator trope done well tbh) which is why I didn’t like the writing style.

I just had such a hard time focusing and reading more than 10 pages a day. I didn’t fully feel engaged until part 2. It’s a very emotional and difficult book, which made me cry a few times. I learned things about the war and ethnic cleansing that I didn’t know before. I also marked a lot of quotes that I found profound or something I wanted to remember

I had one issue with the book and that was the author writing about what happened, that “the guilt of one side doesn’t determine the innocence of the other.” I understand what she’s trying to say but in this case, it was a genocide, it comes across as “well the Serbians did bad things but so did the other side” when it’s not that simple because the “other side” (Croatians and Bosnians) are innocent and did “bad things too” in order to survive and defend themselves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Genocide

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Rape

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Mass/school shootings, Genocide, War, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Vomit, Rape, Sexual violence, and Child death

thehmkane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Very solid. Great prose, heartwrenching story. Shines a light on a topic I knew little about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Genocide, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Medical content, Rape, and Sexual violence

mrlsdevos's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Hate crime, Genocide, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Vomit, War, Death of parent, Child death, and Death

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

msennflinn's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Violence, Child death, Genocide, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Rape

juhlig's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Murder, War, Death, Genocide, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual violence, Rape, and Sexual assault

kaneebli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, War, Xenophobia, Genocide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, and Pedophilia

alexture's review

challenging dark reflective fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, War, and Violence

Moderate: Mass/school shootings and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Rape and Alcoholism

annareads9898's review

dark emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.5

I found this novel slightly difficult to "get into" at first, I had to re start it a few times because I did not feel like I was giving it my full attention. I liked how the book operated between three/four different timelines and events, it kept the Yugoslavian War and the genocide that occurred front and center instead of cramming it into one section of the book. I only gave it 3 and a half stars because I did not feel Ana as a fully formed character. She was the main character of the book but I felt the descriptions of her and the descriptions of her inner monologue to be very stop and go, like the events in her life were never finished. This could have been done purposely so, just not the type of prose that I usually enjoy. Sara Novic, the author of this novel, is deaf and in my copy of the book there was a section in the back devoted to her talking about being a deaf author which I found to be extremely interesting and worthy of evaluation. She seems to be a great advocate for HOH (hard of hearing) persons rights.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, and Gun violence

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence