Reviews tagging 'War'

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

36 reviews

nataliebootlah's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective 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

4.0

This is the brilliant story of Vivian Morris’ life—from being kicked out of college to getting shipped off to her semi-estranged aunt in Manhattan to actors, plays, sex, and show girls. 

It’s basically a 400-page response a woman named Angela receives when she asks what her father meant to Vivian. Ultimately it’s a coming of age novel about a beautiful, rich girl finding her way (and making mistakes) through show business, war, love, loss, and life. 

I loved the darling cast, dazzling New York City nightlife, and overall ode to Vivian’s life. It’s everything you’d expect from a multi-faceted, complex, and sometimes unreliable narrator. That’s showbiz, baby!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, Homophobia, Grief, and War

karyan1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, War, Sexual content, Body shaming, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Minor: Car accident

ashleereadsbooks692's review against another edition

medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, War, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

madelinedalton's review against another edition

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

In many ways, this felt like a disappointing knockoff of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. In many other ways, it’s quite different. As a New Yorker and musical theatre performer myself, I really enjoyed the book’s setting and atmosphere. However, I found Vivian’s reason to write a 470 page novel to answer Angela’s question to be a bit flimsy and self-indulgent. Vivian was pretty one dimensional and unlikable until the last ~100 pages of the book. I understand that that was sort of the point—that she had to outgrow this shallow existence—but I also found characters who the author consistently claimed were complex to be rather flat, so I think it was a writing flaw. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, War, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death and Misogyny

Minor: Medical content

greenlivingaudioworm's review

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexual content, Infidelity, Alcohol, Abortion, Body shaming, Mental illness, Pregnancy, War, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Misogyny

leonormsousa's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

REPRESENTATION 

lesbian SCs, LI w/ PTSD, PoC SC

QUOTE 

“Anyway, at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.” 

GENERAL OPINION 

• I devoured and loved this book!
• It's super addicting, which I wasn't expecting from historical fiction.
• Love the topic of women's liberation as well as the ones that are "left behind" during war.
• It does non-likeable-main-character perfectly.
• A bit slow at first but definitely picks up after the first one-third.
• Felt like the romance at the end was unnecessary and would have preferred it if it wasn't a part of the book. However, considering that is there, wouldn't have done it a different way.

READ IF YOU ENJOY

• non likeable and flawed main characters
• self-aware narrator
• New York as a setting
• glamour, theatre and fashion
• women in a liberation and self-discovery journey

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Cancer, Classism, Death, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

PTSD

ellieisreading's review against another edition

hopeful reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and War

rachc5's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved everything about this book, except that it was a letter written to an almost irrelevant character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Violence, Sexual content, War, and Sexual violence

greatexpectations77's review

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-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

4.25

I enjoyed this very much and moved through it quickly. Ms. Gilbert has quite a knack for fiction, which surprised me a little because not everyone can do both fiction and non-fiction so well. A fun tale of the young and stupid days of our 20s, and the selfishness that keeps us alive. Also very interesting look at the impact of war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Pregnancy, War, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Bullying, Classism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, and Death

Minor: Abortion

paulaortuno's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-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: Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Infidelity, and War