Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner

4 reviews

sunnyphantic's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

This is an absolutely beautiful book, and it is an extremely slow read. There are so many complicated emotions, contradicting and informing each other, and all coexisting and appropriate. The way that the book is written, with a lot of focus on prose, set-dressing, and other descriptions, forces you to take your time with it, both to its benefit and detriment. The perspective shifts really add a lot to the book, especially near the end. Personally I feel like too many things were resolved in too short of a timeframe at the end, and these subplots could have been resolved earlier in the book with nothing lost. I really loved this book after I got halfway through it, and it's a bit of a grind to get to thet point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kestrellady's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.5

Overall, this was a really lovely book about healing from tragedy and finding home again when so much of your home has been lost and destroyed. The chapters alternate between Teera, who escaped the Khmer Rouge regime as a child and spent most of her life in the U.S., and the Old Musician, who fought for the Khmer Rouge and was eventually swept up in the purges of the regime.
Many of the Old Musicians chapters are flashbacks to the Khmer Rouge regime and the Cambodian Genocide, so please check the content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Torture, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Drug abuse and Terminal illness

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

Music of the Ghosts is a story that encompasses so much: the brutality of genocide, the shattering of a country and its people, the aftermath of unspeakable grief and loss, the weight of memory, the tentative rebuilding and the fragile but bright sparkle of future hope. 
It is such moving and impactful storytelling that really captured me and put me through a whirlwind of emotions.
I underlined so many quotes, both particularly captivating examples of prose and insightful reflections that resonated deeply with me.

I really liked Ratner's writing style, I think it struck a good balance between lyricism and concreteness. I also appreciated how the Cambodian cultural and linguistic elements really shone through.

I enjoyed the double point of view (Suteera & Old Musician), and the gradual unveiling of the characters' past history was heartbreaking but very compelling. 

The book deals with heavy contents but I think the author handled them carefully and without unnecessarily overdoing them. There were only a couple of scenes of torture in the last 30ish pages that I felt were a bit too much in their graphic details (at least for my personal level of impressionability).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Sexism, Suicide, Excrement, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Rape, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Deportation

zarrazine's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture