Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

North Woods by Daniel Mason

15 reviews

atiek's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

I give this book beyond a five point oh. It'll break your heart and allow you to see justice in the same breath. It'll build you back up once broken down. All of the characters's voices are palpable and I strongly recommend listening to North Woods on audio for the best experience. I will be buying a physical copy of this book some day, it is that freaking great.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide and Slavery

Minor: War

deedireads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.

See, now this is what I want every literary historical fiction novel to be for the rest of time. More books like this please!!

North Woods is super engaging and creative in structure, with the focus on the woods (and a house in those woods, complete with apple orchard) over 4+ centuries. We meet not only the people who lived in the house, but also the animals — and we get not only traditionally narrated chapters, but also songs, newspaper clippings, and more. It’s a tapestry, it’s a patchwork quilt, it’s the circle of life in miniature, and it is equally heartbreaking and delightful (and, at times, quite shocking).

Truly, I just loved this one so much. If you like books that span lifetimes, connect them in super-smart ways, cut to the quick of an excellent character in no time flat, weave in nature, and experiment with structure, run don’t walk!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Grief and Animal death

Minor: Slavery and War

mondovertigo's review

adventurous funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Murder and Sexual content

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: War

jesselynn's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.5

Rapturous, moving and eternal.

An incredible book. It is a true epic of life, death, nature, history, succession and reclamation. Told in many voices and styles, we follow hundreds of years of history revolving around a house deep in the woods of Massachusetts. This book haunts its reader with the voices of the past, rallies the timeless human and non-human experiences that are held in a perpetual clandestine shroud between walls, branches and soil. It is sweeping and vibrant and rich in longing and grief and nature. A truly fascinating literary joy and stellar achievement by Daniel Mason.

Thank you to John Murray Press/Hachette for the advanced reader copy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, War, Ableism, Car accident, Death, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Murder, Gore, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, and Dementia

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Suicide, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Slavery

rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Daniel Mason's North Woods is a masterful literary art form exploring the four-hundred-year history of the woods surrounding a particular house in western Massachusetts. Mason uses songs, journals, letters, medical notes, and other techniques to share the lives of those who live, love, suffer, create, and die there. The manner in which this book reveals the life cycles of flora and fauna is lyrical, respectful, and full of wonder and awe. Throughout North Woods humanity shapes and changes the environment, but the natural world very much reveals itself to be omnipotent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, War, and Slavery