Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

22 reviews

rachel101's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Violence, and War

michimiya's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, War, Murder, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Torture, and Abandonment

Minor: Vomit, Terminal illness, Suicide, and Rape

lightsleeper_heavydreamer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This was a wonderful family saga and I cried and learned a lot! The things I knew about Vietnamese history I mostly had from museums, this book brought history to life in all its tragedy, cruelty, all its sorrow and grief, all its persistence and kindness and love. At times this story is almost unbeatably sad and I felt so much for the family and everything they had to go through but it also managed to be hopeful throughout. The women here are so strong for their persistence and their unwillingness to give in or to lose their kindness. 
Highly recommended the audio book, there's so many Vietnamese proverbs in this and   hearing them spoken by a Vietnamese speaker and not just reading them wrongly in my head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Genocide, Suicide, Death, Sexual violence, Rape, Miscarriage, Torture, and War

sas_lk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I don't have much to say, other than I just really liked this book. The author kept me hooked from start to finish, even though it was a historical fiction - which are usually quite dense, which means that i regularly need breaks. However, it was so easy to keep reading, and I felt truly "transported" - the same way Huong was transported to Laura's world. 
Painful, heartbreaking, but so inspiring and hopeful in the end. A novel about the horrors, and the truest beauties of life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage and Abortion

Minor: Cancer, Alcoholism, Rape, Suicide, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

This is a spectacular book. Its lyrical and breathtaking and sweeping in scope. It taught me I know nothing about the Viet Nam war. It's got all of the depth and sprawl of books like 'Pachinko' and 'Peach Blossom Spring' and the epic staying power of novels like 'Homegoing' and 'Infinite Country' and everything Khaled Hosseini has ever written. It was riveting and searing. 

It could also be frustrating; despite how much I loved the book, I often felt like the characters were almost too naïve deliberately so the author could use them as a mouthpiece for philosophical arguments; i.e. Huong being 15 and not understanding what rape is so that the book can make the argument that no one should be shamed for violence inflicted upon them. There were other instances of this that tested believability, but for me it didn't drag down the impact of the novel. I'd recommend this to anyone and it will have a permanent place on my bookshelf and rotation of revered books. 

I will say that I almost, almost knocked this down one star because I thought it was so unbelievably stupid that Tam's grandfather was Wicked Ghost. That was too much for me, too 'connected', and even though it resolved well, I hated it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Cancer, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and War

annorabrady's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

I loved the look into the history of Vietnam through the generations. The characters and their stories were fully fleshed such that it reads more like a memoir than a historical fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Hate crime, Classism, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Confinement, Vomit, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Police brutality, Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Infertility

singout's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

Powerful story about three generations in North Vietnam: it goes back-and-forth between a young girl’s experience of the end of the Vietnam war, and her grandmother’s survival of the 1940s great hunger and harsh land reform, with the middle generation being portrayed either as children or soldiers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, War, Murder, Gore, Abandonment, and Body horror

edilund's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Rape, Child death, Physical abuse, Death, Suicide, and Alcoholism

catalyst226's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

This read like narrative poetry and was very beautiful and incredibly sad. The overlapping generational storytelling was engaging and I found myself drawn to the emotions the author detailed in each section.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Suicide and Abortion

carlafiorenzo's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Child death, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Racism, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Vomit, Abandonment, War, Body horror, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Excrement, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide