Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Greenwood by Michael Christie

5 reviews

hannxm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, Addiction, Chronic illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Homophobia, Death, Pregnancy, Gun violence, and Alcohol

Minor: War, Cancer, Terminal illness, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

mandi_lea's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, War, Addiction, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Violence, Ableism, Animal death, Cancer, Drug use, Terminal illness, Blood, Drug abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

hamstringy's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

An absolute treasure of a multi-generational book. Christie does a really good job of sticking to his chosen themes, making us care about complex characters, and keeping track of a lot of details that the characters themselves mix up

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

feathery's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Cancer, Bullying, Blood, Animal death, Drug use, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Classism, Addiction, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Gun violence, Ableism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Outing, Infertility, Vomit, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Excrement, Cursing, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Outing, Miscarriage, Rape, Murder, Abortion, and Sexual violence

oceanxbluess's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I've found so many forever favourites this year already, and my luck didn’t run out when I recently read Michael Christie’s ‘Greenwood’.

Spanning over 120 years the book is structured like the concentric growth rings of a tree and focuses on 5 of the most pivotal rings in Greenwood history - giving the term ‘family tree’ a whole new definition.

The Greenwood family, as their surname suggests, are all in some way or another connected to trees - whether that be through logging, carpentry, dendrology, tourism or activism.

We flick from 2038 where ‘The Great Withering’ - the wave of fungal blights and insect infestations caused by climate change - has wiped out almost all of the world's forests and people around the globe are dying from a new cough-inducing strain of tuberculosis caused by the increase of dust storms, all the way back to 1908 where the logging industry was just beginning to find its feet.

Trees became a luxury, only affordable for the richest members of society, with Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral open for pilgrims, celebrities & billionaires to spend some valuable time with one of the last remaining forests in the world - although most of them just want to take a selfie in the trees to post to their socials..

Christie’s writing completely blew my mind. The story is structured in such a unique & apt way, and the details are absolutely insane! It was so easy to become invested in each and every character, learning so much about each of their lives with SO MUCH DETAIL. I adored every character.

This is what I would class as a climate fiction book, but the story comes incredibly close to our reality right now (as do most in this genre). Of course many of us have been aware of the detrimental effects of climate change across the globe for a while now, and with temperatures reaching 40C for the first time in the UK this week, it is becoming harder and harder for people to deny & ignore. 

This is definitely one for fans of The Overstory. I also kept thinking of Once Upon A River whilst reading this, finding familiarities in how incredible the storytelling is.

This multigenerational, pageturner of a climate fiction book is a must-read and has definitely made it into my top 5 reads so far this year, and claimed a spot on my forever shelf.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, and War

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Homophobia