Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

95 reviews

tamtamslibrary's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

A story about wildness—about all the definitions of it from humans to animals to nature. The author does a fantastic job of creating a setting, from sentence structure to character building to sensory details. It is emotional—you’ll feel sad, enraged, confused, and sad again, but there is a rightness set by the end. 

****Check the trigger warnings before reading****

I’ll put my favorite quote, that gave me chills reading, below. I think it really encompasses the entirety of the novel’s message.

Favorite quote:
“Do you think it can ever be?” he asks me softly. “Bred out of a creature?”
“The wild?” . . . “It happened to us, I think,” I murmur. “Most days I think we couldn’t be farther from it, that it was slowly bred from us until we became more like machines than animals.”
“And the other days?” he asks.
“On the other days,” I say slowly, “I think I will go mad with the wildness.” (Page 131)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

Chapter 26 is the graphic scene (assault). It can be skipped, in my opinion, and it won’t rob the novel from its purpose or intent.

mmc_librarian's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Suicide

Minor: Ableism

astridrv's review against another edition

As with Migrations, it took me a few chapters to get into the voice - something about the overtly rebelious tone always initially irks me. And then, somehow, magic happens: a scene, a paragraph, an image of utter awareness and connection to the natural world, a burst of intense emotion, and I'm hooked. Can't stop reading. Inti, like Franny, stays with me in between pages. The writing is poetic as fuck, and yes, the story could be more restrained, less dramatic. But so what? We are alive in this raw rare miracle and Charlotte McConaghy not only gets that but also shares it on an instinctive level. She might say, from her wild parts to ours.

That said, I have issues with the way the theme of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and PTSD was portrayed in here. It feels unnuanced, and one character especially felt like a metaphorical device at times more than a person. I'm increasingly upset about how their arc ends. In attempting to do three things at once, I feel like this book was mostly successful as an eco-fiction work (although I raised my eyebrow at

giving birth in a snowy forest

), rather unconvincing as a murder mystery, and widely immature as a commentary on misogynistic violence and PTSD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and Pregnancy

vanesst's review against another edition

challenging inspiring mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Suicide, and Stalking

fkshg8465's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I expected more, and I find myself thinking about this book even after finishing it, in the wrongest ways...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

corncake's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Medical content, and Abandonment

allyem_reads's review

2.5

4.04 CAWPILE 

Meh? Not a great start to the year, but I'll deal. I knew this kind of story was out of my comfort zone anyway, so I'm not completely surprised that it just wasn't the book for me. At least I read it and knocked one more book off of my TBR!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

sincerelygracec's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A phenomenal work of fiction. Heart breaking and beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

starsandscarsbookclub's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

rach_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Grief