Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

4 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

martinatan's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

Really really compelling entanglement of modern characters, motivations, and politics. It felt like such a treat to witness this kind of smooth yet complex storytelling. As someone who recently visited NZ, it was really cool to see Southland as this seemingly mundane setting for a sinister and tragic unraveling of lives. I really enjoyed the descriptions of characters’ changing relationships and perceptions of one another as the plot evolved. I can see why this is being called Shakespearean in the use of dramatic irony, which really got me worked up!! Damn good story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Suicide, Animal death, Medical content, Car accident, Sexual content, Cursing, Blood, and Stalking

Ecothriller, surveillance, late stage capitalism

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I had to restart this book several times because I had trouble getting into it initially. So glad I kept at it. It kept coming up on must read lists, and I’m so so glad it did. Everything about the book - the setting, the characters, the plot, the motivations, the themes - all of it was unexpected. Even though I disliked every single character, I really liked this book. That is a rarity for me. 

My only wish was that it had been broken down into more chapters. Because there were only three chapters, it was hard for me to break up my reading in between daily activities.

This is a book I’d like to see taught in AP English and college classes across the US. Is a very well written allegory for the state of today’s world. Starts out slow, but comes to a screeching halt at the end because it speeds up so fast by then that it’s the only way out can end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, Car accident, Gun violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Grief

jtpgdavey's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Death of parent