Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Promise by Damon Galgut

10 reviews

james1star's review

emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Grief, Death, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent, Infertility, Suicide, Eating disorder, Murder, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Animal death, Religious bigotry, and Alcoholism

loveyourlibraries's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.75

I found the book overly depressing with no likeable characters. It was described as “moving fluidly between characters” but I found this technique confusing. One sentence would be describing the thoughts of one character and then the next sentence is another character’s thoughts without anything to let the reader know it had happened. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Infidelity, Racism, and Incest

Minor: Eating disorder and Infertility

julia_rose's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

The most 5 star book I’ve ever 5-starred. This is a very special book. Exquisite prose without being pretentious. Complex characters you love and hate (except Amor and Salome who are angels) who evolve masterfully. Extremely visual, it’s rare that a book transports me to another world. Emotional but not corny and still has the odd light-hearted moment which is hard to inject into such a dark story.

I appreciated how Lukas still scolded Amor at the end so it didn’t become just another “white saviour book.

Seamlessly floated between all the characters’ heads, expert narration. Just beautiful. A beautiful beautiful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Gun violence, Infertility, Death, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism

geraldinerowe's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

For me, this book didn't live up to the hype. I found the writing style pretentious and gimmicky, and all the main characters unlikeable. I'm not sure whether you were supposed to like Amor, but I didn't. She claimed to want to keep her family's promise, but did almost nothing to try to achieve it apart from vaguely mentioning it in passing every ten years or so. But perhaps that's not what the book was about. The narrative seemed to suggest it was more about the family itself, and how the huge changes happening in South Africa at the time played into their story. It was fairly obvious from the titles of the four parts of the book, once you're a little way in, how the story will unfold, and there are no surprises, but Galgut is a compelling writer so it's less about the ending and more about getting there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Colonisation, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Infertility, Racism, and Gun violence

thebowandthebook's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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

3.5

Very interesting read, it hopped around a good bit. Writing style was different then my normal reads but enjoyed it. Bit crude,unfiltered examination of people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Death of parent, Suicide, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Racism, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Alcoholism

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, and Infertility

sib_reads's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Excrement, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Blood, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Dementia, Self harm, and Sexual content

victoria_catherine_shaw's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Racism

Minor: Infertility and Infidelity

ladymirtazapine's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The ideas were much better than the execution. The first chapter, a quarter of the book, was barely readable, the second was brilliant, the other two were fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Vomit, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Racism, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Infertility, Gun violence, Grief, Excrement, Eating disorder, Dementia, Death of parent, Confinement, Cancer, Antisemitism, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

narpetcards's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, and Infidelity

emmagrace's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Infidelity, Racism, and Suicide

Minor: Infertility, Cancer, and Eating disorder