Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Wellness by Nathan Hill

12 reviews

shankarhere's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Cancer, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

hdunscombe's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Gaslighting, Blood, Child abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Child death, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual content

jennalightner's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Abandonment, and Suicide attempt

erikagibson126's review

challenging dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Child abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Death of parent, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cancer, Animal death, Physical abuse, Bullying, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

kelsylee's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Child death and Child abuse

Minor: Animal death and Cancer

jrlibros's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Child abuse

elisalasater's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

astoriareader's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

SYNOPSIS:

• Jack & Elizabeth are married & have a son together. They’ve been together for about twenty year, and they met in college in the early 90s while living in Wicker Park.
• The book centers around these two characters, but it jumps around in time a lot. We get to learn their backstories & childhoods.
• After 20 years together, Jack & Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and Hill intertwines back stories to give us deeper insight as well.

MY THOUGHTS

• 600 page sweeping story.
• Deftly executed + amazing character development. Hill flushes out the back stories to our two main characters. We get to see them at their highs and their lows.
• As a former psych major, I loved all the psychological references & the general psychological meanderings.
• This book tackles a giant range of topics, such as love, marriage, conspiracy theories, parenting, trendy fitness programs, Facebook algorithms, placebos, polyamory, trauma, poignant social media commentary, “the Secret”, 90s culture, and provably lots more that I am forgetting.
• Hill is a master at storytelling, and I resonated with his writing style. The book feels so real, relatable, and human.
• I really loved the exploration of how humans grow & change. Jack & Elizabeth are not their twenty year old selves for eternity. What do we do with that? What is love? How do we evolve as humans, and what does it mean if our life partners have evolved in different ways?
• Hill clearly researched a lot of topics & even includes a bibliography. He’s smart, and I enjoyed his commentary throughout the book.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️modern classic. 600 pages. this one will stick with me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Child death

Moderate: Infidelity and Cancer

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.0

The best part of this book was the ending for two reasons: 1) it was finally over and 2) it was truly the only part of the story I thought was well told. For the ray of the time, I kept wondering why this book was so damned long.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug use, Cancer, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Bullying, and Fire/Fire injury

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-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

4.75

 Wellness is a rich multilayered novel exploring the lives of a Chicago couple, Jack and Elizabeth. It goes back to examine their childhoods, their teen years, the early years of their relationship and their early years of parenthood showing the reader how they came to be the people they are today, and how their marriage came to be in the state it is, a state that has one spouse arguing for two master bedrooms in the new home they are planning so that if they should divorce they could easily continue to live in one home, providing stability for their ten year old son. It’s a novel that is not afraid to be discursive, exploring in depth a whole range of issues including the placebo effect and internet algorithms, polyamory, parenting, art and so much more. Some parts are absolutely heartbreaking, others totally hilarious, and more than a few are guaranteed to resonate with readers of a similar age to Jack and Elizabeth. It’s length and discursiveness mean it won’t be a book for every reader but I thoroughly enjoyed deeply immersing myself in their world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cancer