Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

28 reviews

mad_is_rad's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Well now my heart’s broken. An incredible story! It was a surprisingly cozy read, too, until it wasn’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Religious bigotry, War, and Slavery

have_a_doris_day's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Medical content, Child death, Death, Grief, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: War

booksandbargains's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment

maddiet425's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Vomit, and War

Minor: Misogyny

libraryghost's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense 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? No

4.75

Broke my "No Pandemic Books During a Pandemic" rule but it was worth it.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Religious bigotry, War, and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

absolutive's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This novel, set in a maternity/fever ward in Dublin in 1918, did not pull me in right away. I twice started it and had trouble focusing. But on the third try I found it riveting, reading it in two days. The novel is set over the course of three days and follows Nurse Julia Power as she cares for pregnant women with the Great Influenza. Each day she improvises, saves lives and is powerless to stop death, using her knowledge and experience and kindness in an utterly overwhelmed and devastated health system. Also in the novel is the real life activist and doctor Kathleen Lynn whose own mastery in politics and medicine rise above Nurse Power, but who is also powerless at times, both in the hospital and against the police; the young, exploited and utterly effective, competent and sympathetic Bridie Sweeney; the whole system of Catholic control over morality, women's bodies, and the babies of poor and unwed mothers; the women on the ward, who along with Nurse Power, Bridie and Dr. Lynn form a small community, constrained by War, Pandemic, British Imperialism and cruel Catholic morality, living, caring and dying together. 

The novel not only explores the stories of people often left untold--poor women in Dublin, children of the unwed, for example--but also queer stories in an unusual and highly effective way. No one would call this a queer novel, I think, but by the end of the novel one must say that it is the story of four queer people living in Dublin when people didn't talk openly about this. This realisation occurs slowly and it's implicit, it's something the novel is lightly building towards but which does not emerge on the ward, hidden from view, like these lives themselves, but which, like the hidden stars, pulls the narrative forward. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Excrement, Medical content, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

rieviolet's review against another edition

dark sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry

ekmoore11's review against another edition

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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape

carlybellesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring sad 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

kayleyhyde's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Medical content, Medical trauma, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Mental illness