Reviews tagging 'Blood'

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

11 reviews

mighty_lizard_queen's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-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

3.0

A cross of As I Lay Dying and Grapes of Wrath

The book is very good for the first part, but once the father is buried I think it lost its way a little bit. I suppose the father was supposed to be redeemed but I didn't buy it. The ending was also unsatisfying and felt disconnected to the earlier parts of the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Deadnaming, Grief, Trafficking, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Bullying, Blood, Outing, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death of parent, Classism, Physical abuse, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Gun violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Violence, Colonisation, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Excrement, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, and Rape

tetedump's review

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Racism, Gore, Domestic abuse, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

ash_ton's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

read this for LGBTQ+ book club :) it was pretty good! i'm longing for more from the ending though.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Addiction, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Violence, Alcoholism, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child abuse, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Bullying, Animal death, Child death, Vomit, and Animal cruelty

miscarriage is a stillborn baby

jialianyang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

A moving, gritty odyssey of two Chinese American children during the gold rush era. They reflect on the question of 'what is home' as they fight in different ways for survival after their parent's death/ losses in a hostile society where everyone wants riches and will do violence to secure it. This story is wild, made with flesh blood and bone, dusty, muddy and captivating as gold and flowers in the hills of California. It is poetry in story, a confessional, an obituary, a wish, a dream. Read only if you are prepared to be haunted by truths and lies, ghosts, gender, beasts human and animal, fear and desire, hope and hopelessness. Nothing is clean in this book, yet there is beauty.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Death, Eating disorder, Blood, Excrement, Racism, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Body horror, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Blood, and Death of parent

zombiezami's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

Reminds me a lot of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. It's very beautifully written. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Bullying, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Blood, Racial slurs, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Xenophobia, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Rape, Genocide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Trafficking, Sexual content, and Cultural appropriation

thesaltiestlibrarian's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Grief, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

mandalacb19's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This book was amazing! It was great to hear about an experience in the old West that wasn't a white persons! This book had amazing prose, and was brilliant to read. It was chilling and haunting, and by the end you just fall in love with everyone you hated at the start. I dropped my rating down from a 5 because in some parts I just wasn't excited to read, but this book otherwise really did it for me. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death of parent, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

kierscrivener's review

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

 This didn't work for me it is distant in narration and we are jumped into a middle of a narrative -several narrative jumping in and out of timelines and we end in the middle of the narrative as well. Literally in mid sentence. I understand the reason she finish mid sentence to illustrate Lucy's story is just beginning but with the story beforehand not being cohesive or satisfying the open endingness just doesn't work.

I love character focused novels so the lack of plot wouldn't have bothered me if it had of been an introspection tale. But we don't see inside Lucy (or Sam's head), it is very tell and not show. Which when the story is relying on their internal journey we don't see it is hard to be anything but bored and slightly irritated because I wanted, wanted to love this story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Violence, Misogyny, Death of parent, Blood, and Xenophobia