Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Woman on Fire by Lisa Barr

5 reviews

mikaylanh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

Sooo much happening here… and not in a great way. The concept of this was intriguing because I took several art history courses in college (though I don’t typically read this genre, like, ever) but the writing style was really not for me.

1. This being written in present tense IMMEDIATELY turned me off from it. I really struggled through the first few chapters because of this.

2. The number of adjectives and metaphors throughout the book was just over the top and  got in the way of the storytelling - very distracting. I personally suck at being concise but this book could have benefited significantly by cutting a lot of this fluff out.

3. I typically love multi-perspectives but there were too many this time. It also didn’t help that characters and names started to sound way too similar to me and got confusing - Jules Roth and Wyatt Ross, Lilian Dassel and Art Basel, Ellis Baum and Bram Bakker… I just had a hard time with this too

I don’t regret reading this and I did still enjoy the heist part so I’m going with a 3/5, but I don’t know that I would recommend it to others unless they’re really passionate about art history or WWII.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, and Alcoholism

Moderate: War, Grief, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Genocide, Stalking, and Trafficking

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I’m genuinely sad about giving this book 3 stars, because I felt fairly certain it was going to be a 4 star read for me when I was about halfway through. This book had a lot of promise for me - lots of female main characters, interwoven stories, multiple art heists, WWII - all the right themes and ingredients were theoretically there. I was sucked in rather early on and was enjoying watching the story unfold.
Unfortunately the last 25 percent really crashed and burned in terms of my enjoyment. The characters became true caricatures in this last quarter. We had the naive but plucky protagonist and the cartoon psychopathic villain on a collision course. The antagonist was evil for no real reason and the depths of her depravity were confusing at times. And our heroine was one of the dumbest smart characters I’ve ever read. She was the cute blonde in the horror movie who decides to go down into the basement alone when she hears something go bump in the night. 
The end only partially worked for me, though there are major plot points that are just left swirling around. 
The goods - I was fairly hooked until I wasn’t, Ellis’ character arc (especially as relates to his grandson Adam), female representation in journalism. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Alcoholism, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, and Drug use

Moderate: Cancer, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Vomit and Grief

rubl_b's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.5

I liked the story and plot, and I was hopeful to love the book. But something about it left me dissatisfied. I fee like the writing was trying to hard to be good and some points left me thinking “did that really just happen?”  Slightly disappointed but good enough to finish. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, War, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Antisemitism, Drug use, and Death

kimveach's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love it when historical fiction is the basis for a contemporary thriller.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Drug use, Genocide, Confinement, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Stalking, War, Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, and Toxic relationship

kathyf1687's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious fast-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Infidelity, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Blood, Cancer, Gun violence, Stalking, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, Addiction, Antisemitism, and Self harm