Reviews tagging 'Grief'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

97 reviews

bryony_'s review

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was one hell of a novel. It evoked such visceral emotions and masterfully explores some intense and brutal themes. I’m just in awe at such a work.  

I found it deeply moving and really quite profound at times. Winn paints such a vivid portrait of these young men and their relationship, set against this backdrop of a bloody and senseless war. 

What I think also demonstrates her talent as an author is also being able to bring some moments of humour into her writing- the humour of the men, having endless copies of the same book to read over and over. To go from that and the tenderness of their burgeoning love, to the horrors of trench warfare and the brutal PTSD and mental trauma experienced with such finesse is inspiring. 
I have so many thoughts about this book and I suspect one I’ll keep thinking about for some time. It probably goes without saying it made me cry. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Grief, and Gun violence

kiwialexa's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, War, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Classism, and Suicide

iftheshoef1tz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was gutting. Gaunt and Ellwood as children, yearning for each other but not doing anything because they both think their affection for each other is too large for a simple boys’ boarding school dalliance, then

the way they love past each other at the end.

The speed with which all the characters’ naïveté was ripped away was breathtaking and staggering, as was the endless recitation of the injured and dead and dying. It really hammers home just how much of a slaughterhouse World War I was - it annihilated almost an entire generation of boys. 

I found Gaunt’s friends’ acceptance of his homosexuality really beautiful, and of course it’s upsetting that that happens and he really begins to come into himself

at the POW camp with his friends while Ellwood is alone and mentally deteriorating and losing everything that made him such a beam of light for Gaunt. The loss of his poetry - down through only “The Light Brigade” to nothing - was so fucking devastating.

Their love story was so fraught in different ways from beginning to end, and it never stopped hurting. 

Quote:
They were clear-eyed, the Greeks. They did not dress up the world with romance and chivalry, did not lure poetry-hearted fools into evil.

Tropes:
The horror of war
Boy soldiers
Killed by the bottom of the page
Just…say what you feel!!
Yearning that just breaks your heart
Like ships in the night

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Violence, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Antisemitism

msouth'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, War, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Genocide, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Classism

aloe_v's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

Reading time: 6 hours
Intense and compelling read

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, War, Murder, Bullying, Blood, Gun violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Antisemitism

arayo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Suicide, Medical content, Homophobia, Bullying, Gun violence, Blood, Child death, Gore, War, Mental illness, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Classism, Outing, Cursing, Antisemitism, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Vomit, Excrement, Xenophobia, and Sexism

bethlouise30's review

fast-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

This book was absolutely beautiful, in prose, characters and story. I cannot recommend it enough. 

Don’t let the fact it is about war put you off, as the character relationships in this novel are sublime. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Violence, War, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicide

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A deeply moving narrative that didn’t necessarily feel new or added anything to the pantheon of WW1 novels, but it was deeply impactful nonetheless.  I really enjoyed these characters and the way in which we saw them change over the course of the war. What is poetry and beauty in the face of so much brutality and senseless violence? I’m currently unable to give this a full 5 stars because I found that the structure was a little bit all over the place. The flashbacks, particularly in the beginning, were not always in the same format or were just thrown in, so I think I would have preferred if this was told chronologically.

I also felt like Gaunt’s return from the dead was like an emotional fake-out, something to make the audience gasp and feel very sad for 50 pages or so, and then his return almost felt like a let down (obviously happy for a reunion, but still, it felt like emotional whiplash!)

On the whole, this was well written, very emotional, and such a compelling story.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Homophobia

oliverlang's review against another edition

dark emotional relaxing sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

It took me a minute to get into this book and connect with the characters but now I'm certain I'll be rereading this.
(I was thinking about the rating of this as I went and it only kept climbing so I'm defaulting to 5 stars for the minute. We shall see if my eventual reread upholds this.)

This was stunning and incredibly managed to capture the guts and brutality of the front lines of war while also providing moments of light and warmth. 

I'm on a constant quest for stories with "old-timey queers" and this delivered exactly what I wanted.

Not really a spoiler, could potentially be described as an anti-content warning but just incase you like to go in knowing nothing about what to expect:

Although this was set in 1914, a time where homosexuality was against the law, this book had a distinctive lack of homophobia woven through it. It seemed that a great deal of the characters were queer themselves or just really cool calm and collected about the whole affair. Slurs are present but not with malicious intent.

I also really like when multiple languages come together and this book gave me French, German and Greek so that was very nice.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, War, Gore, Grief, Confinement, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, and Death

Minor: Death of parent

kimmag92'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

In Memoriam may be the best book I've read in 2023 and it makes me sad that it's not getting the same traction in North America as it is in the UK as it was absolutely phenomenal.  Winn paints a heart wrenching picture of what the First World War was like for those who fought in the trenches as well as what life was like for gay men at the time.  I spent the whole book worried about what would happen to Ellwood and Gaunt and if they would survive the war.  Besides her depiction of young gay men in the 1910s, she also reminds us how young many of the boys who fought in the conflict were and how it impacted their lives both through what they witnessed as well as through those they lost.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Outing, Self harm, Vomit, War, Excrement, Colonisation, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia