Reviews tagging 'Grief'

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

7 reviews

story_of_steph's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

This book felt like homework. I was so excited to read a story about Australia from an Australian author since I moved here but I was honestly bored to tears. Only positive I have to say is you can truly see the love the author has for this country with the colourful descriptions of the scenery. But even that got a bit too much. I think the book had the potential to be a great story but it didn’t reach it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Body horror, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, War, and Child abuse

Moderate: Misogyny, Grief, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Animal death, Death of parent, and Addiction

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, and Rape

kiwialexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, Sexual assault, War, Child abuse, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

carlytenille's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and War

zjdhudson's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective 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

4.0

This book took me a while to get through but I think that worked in its favour. The book was heavy at times but it worked really well with the pace at which I was reading, it was a real slow burn reading this book and it was so worth it. I think the characters were really interesting and I think the detail put into the environment was fantastic and true to the Australian landscape. I highly recommend this book but make sure you go into it knowing that it’s a heavy read that may take a while otherwise you could easily be put off for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Grief

Moderate: War, Violence, Suicide, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Gun violence

sneako's review against another edition

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

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cancer and Terminal illness

jameslyons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I struggled to enjoy the first third of the book - way too dark, graphic and bleak for me. Most of it felt unnecessary and heavy handed, and I think Dalton could have started the book around page 200, but I was glad I pressed on if only to be transported into the magic of the outback for the rest of the book! And honestly, all these characters and not a single one of them is gay??? Same with Boy Swallows Universe. Hm.... Not exactly the "picture of Australia" his books are cracked up to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

emilyrainsford's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

He prefaced this story as he'd done every other time he told it, by acknowledging its more questionable narrative turns. 'For this story to reach your heart, son, you may need to swallow it down with a sprinkling of salt… You should write the facts of this story only on tissue paper. But you should carve its meaning in stone.'

This is a fairytale. But don't let that give you the wrong idea. Have you read the original fairytales? Those things were dark as fuck and so is this. 

It honestly got a bit much for me after a while - trauma after trauma piled on this young girl. It was around the point where she's forced to dig up her own mother's skeleton, and then finds her father's dismembered body, that my inner landscape started to consist mainly of that gif where that guy is just looking at the camera saying sincerely,  "Stop. Get some help."

I'd call this novel "genre defying". Don't let the pretty flowers on the cover fool you. It veers into the bizarre and macabre as often as it does the literary and hopeful. Perhaps more often. I honestly feel like Dalton has missed his calling as a horror writer. 

This book felt quite bleak to me. I didn't really find it hopeful or uplifting. But I think the frequent mentions of Shakespeare's tragedies - Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet - serve as a reminder that not all stories are happy ones. Sometimes a tragedy is just a tragedy. 

I felt like the scene where Tom Berry is telling the pub a tale was a parallel for the experience of reading this story. Dalton is spinning a yarn around the campfire. But where does story and truth intersect... maybe that's up to the listener to decide. 

I think, for me, above all, this was a love story. But not the way that might make you think. It was Molly and Greta's love story. Because there is no love on earth like that between a child and a mother - even if that love was born in hearts not bellies.

Dalton's writing is undoubtedly singular and superlative - I think even better than BSU. But this one felt heavier to me. Let's face it, I'd probably read the blurb on a pack of bog rolls if Dalton wrote it. But ngl, I wouldn't be complaining if the next one *wasn't* about a traumatised 12 year old child.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Rape