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4.1 AVERAGE

devlavaca's review

4.0
adventurous informative sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

scratch665's review

5.0
adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous informative reflective
medium-paced

Such an interesting read after visiting Gettysburg! 

"This is free ground. All the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by what your father was. Here you can be something. Here's a place to build a home. It isn't the land there's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me, we're worth something more than the dirt. I never saw dirt I'd die for, but I'm not asking you to come join us and fight for dirt. What we're all fighting for, in the end, is each other."

“In the presence of real tragedy you feel neither pain nor joy nor hatred, only a sense of enormous space and time suspended, the great doors open to black eternity, the rising across the terrible field of that last enormous, unanswerable question.”

dreavg's review

4.0
emotional informative reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
siobhanward's profile picture

siobhanward's review

3.5
adventurous informative medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

For a book about the American Civil War, I was surprisingly into this book. Maybe because there was so much focus on the people, rather than the battle itself. While I was definitely still confused about what was happening, the maps helped a lot. There are obviously things that are very dated (calling slavery "a way of life" is definitely not the vibe anymore), but as a historical piece it was interesting. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
mattip's profile picture

mattip's review

4.75
adventurous dark emotional informative tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
dark emotional informative reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

craigwiley89's review

4.25
adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Knowing its reputation, I didn’t expect it to be so lyrically written - a sort of Hemingway terseness, and an almost Joyce style free-indirect-discourse in its perspective. 

But for all that it’s really accessible, and packs a wallop by the end.