Reviews tagging 'Death'

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

10 reviews

eli_is_trying's review

hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug use, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Addiction, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Misogyny, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Physical abuse

abookandaspotoftea's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Grief, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

kayteslibrary's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Suicide, Addiction, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Eating disorder

anyka's review

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

heists, immigrant ambition, parental expectations, samosas, love, time, pressure, history and gold all melted down into the fizzy lemonade of sathian’s gold diggers. some very beautiful pieces of prose, interesting elements of magical realism and important themes covered (mental health, academic pressure, addiction, suicide etc.). i found it hard to get through some bits and this really dragged out my read dates, so i’m glad i finally crossed it off the list.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Infidelity, Drug use, Suicide, and Addiction

multiplyoctopi's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use and Addiction

Minor: Eating disorder, Child death, Death, and Suicide

jayisreading's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

I finished this book with some mixed feelings, but I’d say it was an enjoyable read overall.

To start with some positives. I enjoyed reading from Neil’s perspective, especially because Sathian put so much attention to the things he was observing around him. It would be such small details, but it added so much to our understanding of who he was as a person. She also has a great sense of humor that she inserted into Neil’s character, and I found myself smiling a handful of times due to the way he reacted to what was happening around him. It really brought to life his character in particular, and you would get aspects of this in other characters as well, such as Anita. Tangentially, I appreciated that she found a great balance between humor and seriousness. While being funny at times, Sathian did a wonderful job approaching heavier topics with grace.

I also really enjoyed the commentary around Indian American life, particularly growing up in an immigrant community. And I loved that Sathian showed how messy it can get. Being Asian American myself, I really sympathized with the gossiping that occurred in a small community, the pressure of meeting parents’ expectations, and just the general feeling of “lostness” that comes with being the child of immigrants. There was this ongoing question that was posed throughout this book, which was what it meant to be Indian and American. It’s a tough question, and I thought Sathian did a wonderful job expressing that identity crisis Neil went through (as well as others), trying to work that out.

My main issue with the book was the handling of the story. I felt as though there were one too many moving parts that ended up making the book feel disconnected. As a result, I found myself finishing the book feeling a little unsatisfied because there were a few things that felt unresolved. It didn’t ruin the overall reading experience, but I found myself longing for more than what was given.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Violence, and Vomit

internationalreads's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Terminal illness

kates_books's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

I liked the start of this book — it was a bit slow but an interesting look into the life of a young boy struggling under the weight of his parents’ and community’ expectations. However, the book quickly became quite depressing.

it was frustrating to watch Neil struggle with various forms of addiction. He once says that he feels to much. But I felt a certain toxic masculinity to this statement. There was no accountability for his actions. No desire to learn how to cope. No emotional intelligence.

. I did like the ending. We finally saw character growth. Overall I feel like my rating is pretty generous. There were times I almost DNF the book, but despite its darkness, I liked that it was a unique story 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, and Eating disorder

courtsbooks's review

emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Colonisation, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Vomit

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Child death, and Addiction

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Cursing

Minor: Dementia, Gun violence, Animal death, Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury