Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

104 reviews

thetearex's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Suicide, Abandonment, Ableism, Gore, Islamophobia, War, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Grief, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gun violence, Rape, and Sexual content

lalu's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This one was intense!

I went in knowing barely anything about the situation and recent history of Afghanistan, apart from there's war and a lot of people but especially women are suffering. I also didn't remember the blurb... And I was absolutely blown away by the story, the characters, the tragedy, the immeasurable suffering, the strength. 

It took me a while to get used to Hosseini's style, but I really admire it now and I'm glad that I decided to buy Kite Runner when I came across it in a second hand book shop just after I started reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Death of parent, Blood, Confinement, Death, and War

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, Grief, Infertility, and Miscarriage

abibliophobic_nerd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Confinement, Grief, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, War, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

imaginefishes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Just like The Kite Runner, this book hit me right where it hurts. Hosseini’s writing style was a welcome sight, and I deeply enjoyed reading about another facet of Afghan living and history in this book. While the gut-wrenching moments here were perhaps not as severe as in The Kite Runner (after all, that sort of betrayal is hard to beat), the domestic abuse and oppression of women delineated in its pages left me breathless and at times, fearful with anxiety. We follow the story of Mariam at the start, and I was confused initially as to why the perspective began to change from chapter to chapter (between Mariam and Laila), until the moment it clicked into place. This story is heartbreaking, once again touching on the idea of parental love (or rather, its lack thereof) but from a female lens instead, where powers continuously attempt to strip them of their agency and how these women act in different ways to manage it, one in subservient acceptance and one in defiant resistance. I was drawn in from the beginning, and my attention would drift to the book and its characters up to the moment I finished its story. Another brilliant, masterfully woven story by Hosseini about the tribulations of Afghanistan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Sexism, Blood, Child death, Domestic abuse, Violence, War, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Grief, Racism, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide, and Rape

Minor: Infidelity, Islamophobia, Murder, Ableism, Classism, and Confinement

I was hoping that they would both be able to get the happy ending they deserved, but alas, in life, you don’t always get what you wish for. It is tragic, and yet, there is a poetic beauty to it.

sadiaa's review against another edition

5.0

I read this book when I was a teenager so this is a reread, but it will always be 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, War, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Infertility, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Rape, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Abandonment, Ableism, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, and Physical abuse

erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to like this but, even though it was kind of dark and there was a lot of tragic stuff happening, I did like it.
This is probably my second favorite book I’ve been assigned to read because it felt very real and I’m glad to have read it, even though some parts made me uncomfortable- the treatment of women, for one thing- but I think those parts were important because they weren’t “comfortable” topics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Rape and Blood

happinessie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Infertility, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

ivysbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

this book destroyed me. a thousand times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Gore, and War

theelliad's review against another edition

medium-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? No

4.5

this was so beautiful to read and so eye opening to read a history, raw and realistic though fictional, so ignored by the western curriculum. mapping these events to pop culture moments and more recognisable (to western readers) events gives the story such a followable timeline despite it spanning such a wide time period 

the writing style of this is so beautiful and emotional and hosseini approaches such difficult themes in such a gentle and humane way, overall a very beautiful read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War, Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Abortion, Rape, Cursing, and Police brutality

onyxisalive's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Overall, this book was very depressing. The hard to read scenes are well written- however, when it comes to the aftermath of these events it feels like the author is in a rush to get on to the next thing, this causes the emotional impact of events to dampen for me.  The further on into the book you get the more the rushing happens, the author rushes character relationships to the point where it feels like you missed out on all the development there. Also, the reaction of characters to events that have happened (or to being told news) is skipped over- it would’ve made the book a lot better if the author had slowed down a bit when it came to these things. 
The book started off really strong, but towards the end I felt like the quality declined. The ending for me was really underwhelming as it felt certain things weren’t acknowledged ‘on screen’ when they perhaps should have been. 

the welcoming back of tariq felt really underwhelming and rushed and the account of their lives together after felt rushed through and as a result the events weren’t as emotional as they could’ve been if the author had taken his time

I can’t speak as to how historically accurate this book is. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, and War

Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Check a trigger warnings list online before reading.