Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

78 reviews

marykatpat's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Death, Car accident, Suicide, Self harm, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Blood, Sexual assault, and Grief

ladynocturnal's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

A beautiful story of human connection and finding your place in the world. I loved the characters and writing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Self harm, Grief, Death, and Child death

Minor: Miscarriage

jourdanicus's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Lovely writing, and I really enjoyed the audio. Frannie... Not the most likeable character, and such a well written example of such. I loved the way the narrative went back and forth in time, it was very smoothly and even at times poetically done. 

Climate change, extinction, suicidal ideation, loss... All very dark themes, yes, but woven together so, so well in this book, and I can forgive the darkness for its ending

on a note of hope

. I don't think the themes were handled with cynicism at all which I really appreciate. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Confinement, Grief, Animal death, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

amreading17's review

adventurous dark hopeful informative inspiring sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Car accident, Abandonment, Grief, Animal death, and Suicide

clumsyknees's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

ebrum's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Car accident, Abandonment, and Suicide

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

This beautiful and sad odyssey of one woman's journey as she follows the last migration of the Arctic Turns in a world facing the disastrous effects of climate change and greed is a must read. Franny is a bird lover but, birds are basically extinct due to global warming and the government's lack of concern with hunting and overfishing. She is on a mission to follow the last of the Arctic Terns, a bird that migrates from pole to pole. She joins a ragtag crew on their fishing boat with promises of a catch they have long searched for. As Franny and the crew journey with the birds, the reader journeys through Frannys childhood, her married life, and what led her to hop on a boat and follow the terns. This novel is a beautifully written picture of the risks of global warming framing one of the most gut wrenching side romances i've ever read. Franny is a complicated and fearless free spirit who works to fulfill her dreams at any cost. She's strong, determined, a tad delusional, and a fantastic character. Niall, her husband, is a dreamboat. No spoilers obviously, but that man is a catch and almost every time he spoke I was practically swooning! In addition, all of the side characters are amazingly complex as well! Even Nialls mom, who has like maybe two chapters? From Ennis, the gambling captain to Lèa the French engineer, the entire crew has a complicated backstory, development, and dialogue. Its amazing that this whole book is less than 300 pages. It packs a punch! I wish I could read this again for the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Terminal illness, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Vomit, Body horror, and Violence

lauramcc7's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Death, Suicide, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, and Death of parent

clairebartholomew549's review

medium-paced

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

4.0

I have sort of confusing feelings about this book. I waffled between giving it three or four stars, but the last third of the book really hit hard for me, so I landed on four stars. This is a pretty brutal story, involving a character who has suffered immeasurably and dissociates quite frequently, leaving you with a disorienting feeling and not knowing quite what is going on. That's presumably meant to mirror Franny's confusing relationship with reality, which ends up feeling pretty profound by the end. This is a really sad story about climate change (you can't think too hard about the worldbuilding because it really doesn't make much sense) and about a person who wants to die but wants to die free. I didn't love this one as much as Once There Were Wolves, but I do find McConaghy's insights about life really moving.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Alcohol, Child death, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Blood, Abandonment, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Confinement, and Grief

singlier's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy 5/5 🕊️ s

I finished this book last week and its still been on my mind so I figured it was time to sit down and write about it. Just...wow. This book is probably the best I've listened to this year. Its also, without a doubt, the saddest. 

This book follows the life of a woman named Franny, who hopes to follow the last migration of the Arctic Tern, the longest migrating bird in the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. In order to do so, she hitches a ride on a fishing vessel, exchanging her knowledge of the bird's path (and the schools of fish they feast on) for travel. 

In this bleak future, the animals of the planet are dying. Due to extreme climate change, most major animal species have gone extinct (save those used for human production and consumption), and there is little incentive to stop the decline save for the resources of a select group of researchers, who Franny's husband belongs to. 

However, throughout her journey to follow the Terns the reader gains access to moments in Franny's life that show how lonely, distraught, and traumatized she is: her soul is built to wander, never comfortable in one place too long, and the toll it takes on herself (as she tries to conform) and her loved ones (who ache to watch her go). She tracks down estranged family in search of her lost mother, and recalls the coldness (and strength) of her paternal grandmother who raised her. She builds a rapport with the crew whose ship she boards, and for once in her life, finds a place where she does not feel the need to run from. It paints a heartbreaking portrait of a woman who spent her whole life finding happiness, and the trials she goes through to carve it out for herself. It is a story of love, most of all, and the love for things that are long gone.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Blood