Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Greenwood by Michael Christie

23 reviews

lanid's review

emotional reflective

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, and Drug use

hannxm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Addiction, Chronic illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, Death, Pregnancy, Gun violence, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Cancer, Terminal illness, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

mandi_lea's review

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, War, Addiction, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Violence, Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Drug use, Terminal illness, Blood, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

cday13's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

I loved Greenwood! Michael Christie did a masterful job of balancing past, present, and future timelines. The separations of timelines were clear, and I was never confused about which character I was with, which is often a critique of books with so many characters and times. 

The future Christie developed seems like it could be very realistic (almost too realistic). His commentaries on climate change, deforestation, and societal disinterest is timely, although did feel a little preachy at times. 

I was never bored while reading. Although I found the "mystery" to be very obvious, I still enjoyed the pacing of its rollout. The ending is depressing (with a tiny sliver of hope), and left me with an increased sense of urgency to ensure that future does not come to pass.

I was able to connect to each of the characters in different ways. They were all fully fleshed out and their motivations, strengths, and weaknesses were believable and realistic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

Minor: War and Homophobia

gomoon's review

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Great book, the 2038 timeline is the weakest.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: War and Homophobia

hamstringy's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

4.75

An absolute treasure of a multi-generational book. Christie does a really good job of sticking to his chosen themes, making us care about complex characters, and keeping track of a lot of details that the characters themselves mix up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

reading_rainbows's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

When I finished this book, I started listening to it again.  So many threads to follow through the generations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse

auraroraora's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual harassment and Physical abuse

zombiewilhelm's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.5

 This book follows the Greenwood family stretching through generations, from 1908 with Everett and Harris Greenwood struggling to survive to 2034 with Jake Greenwood, a young woman trying to pay off her student debt in a world that's been ravaged by the Withering. 

I found this family saga to be equal parts interesting and horrifying. Everyone in this book has their own trauma that they are working through. PTSD stemming from the war, addiction, crushing student debt, worldwide climate crisis, the Dustbowl, a secret gay relationship during the early 19th century, etc. All of the characters are desperately searching for something in their lives. It was a pleasure to join them on their journeys even if they didn't ultimately find what they were looking for. I think the craziest part of this family saga is that most of the characters aren't actually biologically related. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction and Classism

Minor: War

joshwrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I bought this book because of Canada Reads and I'm convinced that Keegan Connor Tracy did it a disservice. She mentioned after Greenwood was eliminated that she knew this book wasn't right for the competition's theme of Shifting Perspective yet defended it because she believed it was a book that all of Canada should read. Even in that regard, she spoiled some of the ending of the book, I think she truly misunderstood the characters and the ending. 

Still, this is a very good book worth reading, even if I feel that the author didn't devote enough words to give a voice to indigenous wisdom. He touches a few times about how colonization and capitalism has harmed nature, and how white people stole the land from indigenous tribes, but that was all. 

In the end, Greenwood is a "true" story about family and humanity's relationship to trees.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Addiction, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic