Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

51 reviews

skylar_cr_wolf's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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? N/A

5.0

“In this war he’s a god, Ellwood.” He put his face into his hands. “You’ve brought the anger of gods upon us.”

First of all, I need to thank two people kindly for recommending this book to me: Kieran and Harvey. 
Thank you two for being part of this journey and being okay with me sharing my inner thoughts about this novel while I read and cried about it.

And now to the novel:

It is more than I can express. And I mean it. The entire topic of world wars is something which usually keeps me away from reading a novel, however, I am glad that it didn’t scare me away this time. Because while WWI is a major point in this book, it is not the central part. The main focus is on friendships and complicated romance, especially as a queer person in the 1910s to early 1920s. It is about how you change through being tormented by the ongoing war and how it changes also the connections you have to people. It is about the loss of them as well. 
Another point which I liked but also surprised me a bit is the accuracy of languages. At least for the German part I can say that it is incredibly accurate. It was astonishing to see a novel which is mostly written in English to depict a fair share of languages in such an accurate form. As someone who is a bit of a lingual nerd (not as big as I used to) find this extremely marvellous. 

I could say so much more. How much I love Gaunt and Ellwood. How much my heart still aches because of Sandys and how much I enjoyed the friendships between Gideon and Gaunt too. How much I will miss their journey and look forward to read it again at some other time. 
And maybe this time I will be better prepared with enough tissues for farewells.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Animal death, and War

Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide, Confinement, and Bullying

zara89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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: Grief, Homophobia, Blood, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gun violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Cursing, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Torture, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Death, Bullying, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Forced institutionalization

willow_thewisp's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, War, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Violence, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Alcohol, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicide

thesecretbookclub's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, and Death

Minor: Blood, Mental illness, Suicide, Bullying, and Antisemitism

lottykarottie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Alcohol, Colonisation, Cursing, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

oz2021's review

dark emotional informative 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Mental illness, Body horror, Death, War, Suicide, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, and Outing

alenert's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes

🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, War, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide

sandysmith's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt are elite public school boys, set at the start of the beginning of WW1, Gaunt signs up, and Ellwood follows him a while after finding Gaunt jaded and changed. The story is wonderfully written, gore, and the horror of war interspersed with the forbidden love of the 2 main characters, initially unrequited. The supporting characters are wonderful, but few survive. I  loved the school paper and updates throughout the novel. I learnt a lot. Classism and the illegality of homosexuality, which to me was just a beautiful love story that happened to be between 2 men with a shared history. Poignant, devastating,  tragedy of war, shell shock and medical restrictions, the reality of the trenches its moving, brutal, but the tragedy is superby handled.  It's a humdinger of a debut novel. Fantastic but heart wrenching.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Suicide, Bullying, and Antisemitism

patriciapueyolopez's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Homophobia, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Bullying, Classism, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Self harm, Death of parent, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, and Torture

nadijya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Alcohol, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Animal death, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death of parent, Infidelity, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, War, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia