Reviews with content warning for Violence - In Memoriam

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

173 reviews

potterpav's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

rating this book 3.5 stars makes me feel so undeniably let down. this was on track to be my favourite book of the year until i actually started reading it, and then the stars fell less and less as it continued. don’t get me wrong, the descriptions and violence is done so masterfully alice winn needs to be given several awards for how sick it made me, she rlly achieved what she set out to do with the displays of the horrors, but as for ellwood and gaunt… their story did not play out how i expected nor wanted from how the blurb describes it. i think the problem was i didn’t like ellwood. even before the war, i didn’t like him and the whole book i just spent feeling sorry for gaunt for liking someone who’s so hot-and-cold. obviously ellwood’s behaviour after fighting is different and can be explained differently, but i feel like as a reader i’m still allowed to dislike a character despite the trauma they’ve experienced. and i also didn’t really like the choice of ending, but i think that’s just a me thing. anyway, yeah i feel so disappointed but if you like (fictional) first world war novels, i would recommend this highly! but if youre into the romance aspect, i would come into this with caution

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aromarrie's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My dearest, darling Sidney, ….

it feels hopeless to be picky about this book to be honest; in all its vivid historical recounts of WW1 through the povs of a few privileged men who were cut off from civilian society, and always will be after the war, as well as the ones who had no privilege to speak of.

it was raw, emotional, and graphic as hell, full of anger and grief, but also a weak longing that tore these characters apart in every page. it was written startingly well and as another reader friend mentioned in her review, it is a timeless story for all.

sidney & henry’s povs were gripping and i felt a part of myself sink with every character who stood by them and then split away. the newspaper clippings added to the bleakness, ill say…

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sophiemundy13's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad

5.0

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. So beautifully written, incredibly moving and poignant. Winn so harrowingly describes the horrors of the battlefield in such a way that you can’t help but think about such a waste of human life. Utterly drawn to the story and characters of Ellwood and Gaunt, who are just remarkably written. Haven’t loved a book like this in a long time

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skylar_cr_wolf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad 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? N/A

5.0

“In this war he’s a god, Ellwood.” He put his face into his hands. “You’ve brought the anger of gods upon us.”

First of all, I need to thank two people kindly for recommending this book to me: Kieran and Harvey.
Thank you two for being part of this journey and being okay with me sharing my inner thoughts about this novel while I read and cried about it.

And now to the novel:

It is more than I can express. And I mean it. The entire topic of world wars is something which usually keeps me away from reading a novel, however, I am glad that it didn’t scare me away this time. Because while WWI is a major point in this book, it is not the central part. The main focus is on friendships and complicated romance, especially as a queer person in the 1910s to early 1920s. It is about how you change through being tormented by the ongoing war and how it changes also the connections you have to people. It is about the loss of them as well.
Another point which I liked but also surprised me a bit is the accuracy of languages. At least for the German part I can say that it is incredibly accurate. It was astonishing to see a novel which is mostly written in English to depict a fair share of languages in such an accurate form. As someone who is a bit of a lingual nerd (not as big as I used to) find this extremely marvellous.

I could say so much more. How much I love Gaunt and Ellwood. How much my heart still aches because of Sandys and how much I enjoyed the friendships between Gideon and Gaunt too. How much I will miss their journey and look forward to read it again at some other time.
And maybe this time I will be better prepared with enough tissues for farewells.

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pnwbibliophile's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

In Memoriam follows two eighteen-year-old English schoolboys at the outbreak of World War 1. Henry Gaunt is pushed by the women around him and his family to join the war effort. Half German, he feels obligated to join so that others won’t think his family are German spies. Ellwood, Gaunt’s closest friend, enlists a few months thereafter. Before their enlistment, we get a glimpse at their “before” life. Pampered, sheltered, idyllic—the life of rowdy elite boarding school boys quoting literature and naively romanticizing the war and its heroism. As their boarding school begins to resemble a farm producing young men for war’s slaughter, that idyllic “before” starkly juxtaposes against the harsh realities of the war.

What plays out is an immersive novel with achingly real characters. Gaunt and Ellwood’s friendship was always more to each of them, though they each think it is an unrequited love. With the war stripping them both physically and mentally, they have to confront their feelings as they cling to each other for the little bit of light amidst the brutality of trench warfare. They’re repeatedly separated and the sense of dread at each not knowing if the other was still alive (as well as their other friends) was captured brilliantly. The novel is further layered with the stories of their fellow friends and civilians back home. You get a true sense of the societal and personal effects of the war as if England herself were a third main character.

And yet that description seems idiotically unrepresentative of what this novel is. It is about love, loss, the immorality of war and empire, and the intricacies of masculinity and male bonds both romantic and platonic. But it is the way in which the author adeptly uses the plot, characterization, voice, and artful prose that makes this novel stand out. Alice Winn is a literary genius. She left no crumbs. I sobbed multiple times, the first time just 3 pages in. Never would I have thought that a fictional student newspaper would repeatedly gut me. The realness of the novel is rooted in the author’s research into the time period. With the emotion of a passion piece and execution of timeless classic literature, this was my favorite read thus far in 2024. It’s one of those stories that sticks with you.

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amalielisabeth's review against another edition

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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? Yes

5.0

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prachibhutada's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

The love story is so tender, especially warm when set inside a war. The book lost me in the middle with its jerky climax and I had to google search the story to make myself return. But the story picks up again when the jerky climax is over. The end feels convenient but my heart needed that.

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