Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

A Spell of Good Things by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

12 reviews

junglejelly's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a beautifully written book with such interesting characters.

While I did mostly enjoy the book, I did find the middle too slow in pace, and the parents' perspectives too jarring. The slow pace and different perspectives affected the flow of the book.

The ending is so haunting and left me

devestated with the family deaths and the unhopeful feeling it leaves you with

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child death, Gaslighting, Medical content, Suicide, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Bullying

kwahl's review

challenging dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

jpreads6's review

emotional sad tense slow-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

4.5

I love domestic fiction and this book broke me. It was slow paced to I really fell in love with our two main characters and I felt their pain too. Make sure you have free time to reflect when you finish reading this, and a tissue too!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Gun violence

amanda_marie's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

I very much enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator’s did a wonderful job. It was a nice slow pace for a while, letting me get invested in the characters. Everything felt quite low stakes. The ending, however, felt a bit like getting hit by a bus. And then it was over. And honestly I’m still not sure how I feel about that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Death

amberinpieces's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Classism, Sexism, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Sexual content, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Suicide, Death of parent, and Child death

bg_oseman_fan's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• 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? Yes

5.0

This story reminded me a lot of Mistry’s A Fine Balance. I admired her ability to weave the characters stories and reveal so much through showing rather than telling. The tragedies felt earned but not inevitable and every word of the story felt like it described the situation perfectly. it was difficult to read at times because of the subjects, but all were handled very well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Classism, Domestic abuse, Violence, Medical content, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Murder, Vomit, Child death, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Suicide, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Cursing

minniepauline's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Gun violence

themillennialjareads's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Stalking, Physical abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Child death

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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? No

3.75

I went into this book not knowing anything about it. As a result I was about 9 hours in before I started seeing the point of the book. It really starts with slice of life things, and a broad cast of Nigerian characters, and it is difficult to see all the connections that will eventually be built. 

Amongst the main players are,
a woman who is a doctor who is being pressured by family to marry the man she has been dating,
his father who is a politician,
her mother who is trying to hold a family together,
the woman she buys her handmade dresses from,
a boy who works in the tailoring shop,
his family and their hopes and financial struggles that have been immense since his father was laid off by government funding cuts for schools.

These disparate characters seem to have little in common except locality. Each has their own history, drives and challenges. The pace is slow and half way through I was feeling a little lost when it came to understanding the significance of some things. Although frustrating, this is part of the point of the book. Without a big picture of what is going on, it is easy to ignore small things that contribute to a problem. This is a major theme of the story, but it takes a back seat to the unfolding interplay of characters.

As a backdrop we see a country that lives with shortage of medical and teaching staff (caused in part by the exodus of graduate students), and a divide between rich and poor that leaves those who are destitute or disabled begging on the streets. There is also some disability narrative with a mother who is terrified that her children will be Dyslexic, because she feels that her personal survival was only possible due to marrying a man with a good job.

Logical things happen but it still feels affronting. The last 5% of the book is a rollercoaster of tenseness and revelation, and emotional resonance that would only be possible with the time and love that the reader invests in the characters to this point. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes character driven stories, has a lot of patience, and an interest in Nigeria.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Medical content, Ableism, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Vomit, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, and Cancer

Minor: Alcohol, Mental illness, and Suicide

nadia's review

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. Well, as much as you can enjoy a book on such tough subject matter. Set in modern-day Nigeria and covering themes of mental health, toxic relationships, abuse, corruption, death, grief, poverty and so much more, this is no easy read. It's been a while that I've read a book that is so purely 'sad' as it says on the (StoryGraph) tin!

Following on from Stay With Me, I remain a fan of Adébáyọ̀'s writing. I could tell I was reading the words of a skilful writer, and yet it was all so easily digestible. Nothing is overdone.

I can't decide how I felt about the change in pace towards the end of the book. On one hand I appreciated the switch-up; on the other, it felt a little rushed!

All in all, an incredibly worthwhile read, and I especially appreciated how the ending of the book accurately reflects the harsh realities of real life for a lot of people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Child death, Death, and Death of parent