Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

34 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

tvnguyen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

The perspective of the grandma and Huong (Guava) as they live through significant war-torn parts of Vietnamese history. I came into this book blind once again and did not expect the war crimes of the Vietnam War to hit me so hard. It was a really tough read but it is so well written. I got so emotional and entirely immersed in the fear, sadness, and lost of the family. I read one of the critic reviews of the book that mentions that this was the missing narrative of the war and I totally agree. 

This historical fiction hits really close to  home and to hear directly from a fictional family that has been affected represents so many families that actually experienced the aftermath of war. There is a lot going on in this book  so please tread lightly and take breaks if needed. But I highly recommend this novel! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Child abuse, War, Abandonment, Violence, Rape, and Death of parent

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

moniipeters's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Abortion, Ableism, Addiction, Blood, Grief, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Genocide, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Gore, Kidnapping, and War

now_booking's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Wow. I’ve known about this novel for ages not least of all because I have many friends on Bookstagram who’ve raved about it for years. The truth is they just might have undersold it. This is a truly brilliant, compellingly-told multigenerational family saga that is filled with so much life and tragedy but yet so much hope for healing and reconciliation even in the face of hardship. 

First of all, I entered this book not knowing much about Vietnamese history beyond America’s interventionist role in it, the dispute in America around their own involvement, and the resultant mess left behind. To my knowledge, contemporary Vietnam is a gorgeous place that tourists visit and that is on my bucket list to go to. Yet outside of this perspective, I’d never really experienced Vietnam from its own perspective as the subject of its own story rather than through a Western lens. Knowing my own family’s experience of war and occupation in my own country, I know the story is never simple and not everyone will agree with this author’s approach to telling this story or perspectives on historical events as reflected through Huong and her grandmother, Diêu Lan. That said, from my perspective as an international reader, I think the author tells an eminently and universally human story where if we acknowledge the commonality of of our humanity, we will understand that there are no real winners in war. 

Diêu Lan is clearly the star of this book even if Huang’s voice remains strong throughout. Sometimes with books about characters that are resilient in the face of incredible trauma and hardship, the inspiration they provide as strong characters can simultaneously feel a little dismissive of the magnitude and impact of the suffering of others- sort of like “if Diêu Lan can move on and keep going, why can’t you? If she can forgive, something must be wrong with you that you can’t.” I think this book approaches this sensibly. Diêu Lan has Pollyanna ways, but she also feels deeply her grief and processes it through her faith. And through that faith, she’s also able to accept people (her children, for example) at different stages of grief and anger and PTSD without judgement and without insisting on her own approach or perspective. I loved how pragmatic she was but also how loving and how emotional. For me, her story was a coming of age story that revealed a lot about how much her family and the way she was raised set her up to face some of the challenges she did in her life. Huang’s story was a parallel coming of age story but more reflective of our journey as readers being novices in Vietnamese history or in Diêu Lan’s life and maturing as we read to a state of of not quite full adulthood, greater understanding of the multiplicity of perspectives and experiences that can be true and the commonality of suffering of everyday people in a war.

The language in this book was absolutely gorgeous, the use of proverbs and stories and viewing the world through a rich lens of culture and traditions, lent authenticity to the history we were reading. This was absolutely tragic but it never felt like grief porn, your heart was broken but in Diêu Lan’s resilience, it was healed again. Even in difficult moments, I was drawn to this and could hardly put it down. This is absolutely my favourite read so far this year and a new all time fave that will stick with me for a long time. I can’t recommend this enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Abortion, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Classism, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infertility, and Child abuse

____emily____'s review against another edition

challenging sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, War, Abandonment, and Violence

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

vincci's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a moving book about intergenerational trauma as a result of events that happened in Vietnam between the French occupation, the Japanese occupation during WWII, the rise of communism, the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Nguyen Phan does not spare any details in sharing these stories and does a masterful job crafting the voices of the characters telling them. In interviews, Nguyen Phan has spoken about wanting to tell the stories that haven't been told in existing works. As someone who wasn't very familiar with Vietnamese history prior to reading this book, it has taught me about the resilience of the Vietnamese people, knowing that many today continue to carry these stories and trauma. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abortion, Rape, Colonisation, and Alcoholism

Minor: Cancer

amyodell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Abandonment, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual harassment, Rape, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Abortion, Cancer, Alcoholism, and Child death