Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Overstory by Richard Powers

7 reviews

gkgkgk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

This book tore me up. It's perfect. 6 stars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Death of parent, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Infidelity

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Excrement, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Emotional abuse, Bullying, and Forced institutionalization

m4rtt4's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I really loved the first part, and had the rest of the book been like it, I'd probably have given this at least 4.5 stars. Still not bad, all the nature stuff was mind-blowingly incredible, but some of the (POC) characters were pretty stereotypical and I didn't really like how all their stories intertwined in the second half.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Police brutality, Violence, Ableism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, Infertility, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

anouks_books's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-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

I already look forward to rereading this book in order to understand it better and take notes of all the little, beautiful passages. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Police brutality, and Torture

Minor: Alcohol, Infidelity, Sexual content, Drug use, and War

indrabindra's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm not sure what I was expecting but this turned out differently. Poetic prose with clearly well researched facts dispersed throughout. I found character dialogue rather clunky, but the plot was captivating. Heavy handed with the mellowdrama to my taste. I don't think this is the "environmental fable" everyone says it is. It's a good story about trees and people, but it is not all-encompassing. Did not appreciate the endings for most of the characters, but I respect that ending a book is tricky. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexism and Cancer

graceflvnt's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative slow-paced

3.75

Really liked all the tree imagery, very atmospheric. 

The way that Powers writes about disabled people is atrocious. Also, I was uncomfortable with what he chose to focus on in regards to the female main characters - a lot of infuriating choices made on his part. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, and Suicide attempt

abomine's review

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

WIP 

The first quarter of this book was the best part, a compelling little collection of short stories about characters from all walks of life and the significant ways trees have influenced their lives. It was lovely, lyrical and subtle in its message. Everything after that was not nearly as enjoyable, between the sudden preachiness, the lack of interconnectedness between most of the characters (contrary to The Overstory's blurb), the info-dumpy rehash of information about tree communities/intelligence that would only be compelling to people who know absolutely nothing about trees, and an ending that felt less ambiguous and more like a dwindling out.

The reviews promising a mind-blowing tour de force, something that would change the way I looked at the world, an epic about humanity's role in nature that did with trees that Moby-Dick did with whales, definitely over-hyped this book for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and War

Minor: Child abuse

booksandmo's review against another edition

hopeful reflective slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis