Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Ghost In The Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

12 reviews

alexisgarcia's review

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

hmmm this wasn’t exactly what i was expecting but it definitely wasn’t bad. this was a type of book i’ve never read before. this was incredibly interesting but a think a tiny bit repetitive and drawn out?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Grief, and Murder

maddiep333's review

informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Gore, Car accident, Chronic illness, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy

feralbookwife's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Just when I was ready to take a break from memoirs, this one knocked my socks off. Went into this one completely blind, just liking the title and cover style, and could not have picked a more poignant book. This is a powerful, deeply honest text with lots of tears along the way. 

CW: animal death, pregnancy, birth trauma, murder, violence, sexism, mental health, autopsy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Grief, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Car accident, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Child death

jesshindes's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

'A Ghost in the Throat' isn't a novel but a piece of creative non-fiction: I'd probably call it a memoir, although it is also (and is also about) an act of biography. This question of form or genre is something that the book repeatedly reverts to: 'this is a female text'. The phrase runs through the whole book like a refrain. Female texts might be bodies, clothes, wounds. The question of how women inscribe themselves on history is central. 

The narrator - a version of the author, Doireann Ni Ghriofa - is a young mother, raising three babies, then a fourth. She is fascinated by an 18th-century Irish poem, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, a lament written by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill after her husband was murdered. The book recounts Ni Ghriofa's relationship with the poem and its author, which is lived alongside and against the repetitive actions and rhythms of caring for her young children: cleaning the house, running the washing machine, feeding the babies. Breastfeeding in particular is another recurrent melody in the music of the book (and it is musical, beautifully written - you can tell that Ni Ghriofa is a poet): the narrator uses it to explore her own impulse toward self-sacrifice.

I really enjoyed this. There's a freedom about its unorthodox form: Ni Ghriofa can move forward through parallels and images without the constraints of traditional plot, although there is certainly an impulsive force that carries the book along. There's also something really effective about how all the sensations of Ni Ghriofa's everyday sit against the historical content of the book. Ni Ghriofa is very interested in the sensory experiences of Eibhlín Dubh's life (sharing a womb with her twin, birthing children, a startling moment in the poem where she drinks her dead husband's blood), and focusing on her own body proves a persuasive way of fleshing out the architectural and archival traces of the past. I also liked that 'A Ghost in the Throat' was so concerned with family life. At first I wondered why this particular poem - which is largely a love poem about a romantic relationship - was Ni Ghriofa's chosen vehicle for exploring her experiences, which felt much more focused on her children - but as the book continues Ni Ghriofa's husband emerges into more centrality and the ending in particular I think does a lot to enrich and complicate some of the issues that Ni Ghriofa has been exploring, and to show how their partnership underpins their family life.

I will also say that reading this book made me realise how much I read aloud in my head to myself, and that when I hit a word I can't pronounce (i.e. most of Irish Gaelic, although I was trying to look things up all the time) my brain just goes "???" instead. But that is VERY much a me problem. In general this was a really likable, thought-provoking book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Cancer

discussion of childbirth and breastfeeding, also of dissection of dead bodies

woweewhoa's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Pregnancy, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content, Car accident, and Miscarriage

aisclaradm's review

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Just incredible. No words for it except incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Misogyny, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, and Medical content

Moderate: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Sexual content

lifeinsherds's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This is one of those books I wish I could read for the first time again. I remember deciding to read this book because of the gorgeous cover and I haven't read a lot of Irish fiction. This novel absolutely blew me away. It's a quiet little book that makes such massive and important statements about the expectations of motherhood and growing up from a protagonist who is looking back on her own past. She further relates her own past and present limitations (and small joys) with those of an Irish poet who lived centuries before her.

Part memoir, part historical fiction, this book stunned me with every chapter. There is not one thing I would have wanted different from this book. And this is the author's prose debut!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Pregnancy

Moderate: Cancer and Child death

Minor: Death, Violence, and Suicide attempt

cereads's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Violence, Grief, Death, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

wrackcity's review

emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pregnancy

penofpossibilities's review

4.0

The first half of this book struck more heartstrings, especially the beginning is phenomenal. This author is very clever and her writing is clearly honed with skill and wit and emotion. Not a favourite, but highly highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Car accident, Animal death, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, and Medical content