Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

22 reviews

coolfoolmoon's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

I’m not Christian anymore, in fact a lot of times I think I want to be Jewish, but for a long time I believed soulmates existed. At 11 I realized (had to be told) I was gay and went through the torment of thinking why would god damn me to hell when I haven't even lived a life yet? Why would god curse me? I figured God wouldn’t've cursed me, maybe it was humans who were wrong. God made me gay and made me a soulmate and theres someone out there who's like me in more ways than other people and their soulmates are alike. So until I was, mm, 21 I was thinking surely I’ll meet that person someday and I’ll just get it, everything will click, life is complete because this is the person God sent for me.

Well, it was a Jewish woman on tiktok, the girl who wanted to nuke the moon, who said “Soulmates are stupid. i love you on purpose.” Fuck! Blew up my belief!

And I think this book reinforces both ideas for me. I’m so sad, I’m like God, send me mine please, send me the person who is my soulmate and I will love them on purpose, even if we are complete opposites and all we do is argue and get into mischief. And then I’m like oh I’m so happy. They chose each other every time, against the odds, literally, cosmically and internally. It’s so beautiful. I'm so sad and so happy.

It's been a long time since I read a book, finished the last page and had to fight myself from rereading it. I may reread it later in the year. Or every January! It’s so beautiful!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Antisemitism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying and Religious bigotry

kys_chai_and_books's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

A wonderfully queer and wonderfully Jewish text that speaks to immigrant experiences during the height of the industrial revolution. Fans of Good Omens and fans of Talmudic texts alike will love this book and its characters.

roseandivy's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

WAUGH. i love. i'm squeezing little ash and uriel and rose and essie in my hands. i love you queer people i love you jewish folklore i love you otherworldly beings that don't subscribe to human concepts of gender i love you labor unions i love you critiques of the american dream and establishment i love you non normative depictions of love!!!!! genuinely could not believe this was a debut novel it's SO GOOD and the ending is so like,,,,,, it's a happy ending and it makes you feel Good but it also doesn't feel Unearned and it's Satisfying and i just. sacha lamb the author that you are. very excited for anything they write in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Antisemitism

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, and Deportation

Minor: Hate crime, Police brutality, and Pregnancy

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Pregnancy

moondragon8's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

5.0

[will fill in later!]

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Deportation

nightstitch96's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Antisemitism

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

meganpbell's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.75

Fans of Good Omens’ Aziraphale and Crowley will find so much to love about another angel-demon odd couple, Uriel and Little Ash! Warm-hearted, whimsical, and wise, this queer, Jewish historical fantasy follows these two unlikely partners in pursuit of performing a mitzvah for a lost girl from their tiny shtetl in the Old Country all the way to Ellis Island and a Lower East Side full of immigrants, strikers, radicals, and many newfound friends!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Deportation

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

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

One of the rare books that made me wish I got along better with audiobooks. It has the cadence and flow of a folk tale or fable and would probably be lovely to hear. That's not to say that reading the printed book wasn't a delight, because it was. I just would've loved to have it in my ears as well as my eyes. It's a love letter to the Jewish immigrants to the US in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the fierce, devoted, rabble-rousing spirt they brought with them. I can never get enough of those - especially the ones written with as much warmth, heart, and spirit as this one is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism and Pregnancy

ronan_lesh's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

hopeful 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

5.0

I love this book so much I can’t talk about it because my thoughts inevitably devolve into unintelligible noise. From the first page (figuratively, because I read the audiobook) it was like the story vibrated at the same frequency as my brain.

It’s a fundamentally queer, neurodivergent and Jewish story with love, kindness and humour at its core. I want to read it a thousand more times!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Sexism, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Transphobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation