Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

11 reviews

moonbrained's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Sexual violence, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, and Chronic illness

Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Abandonment, Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lowbrowhighart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Big trigger warning for animal cruelty/torture! Part of the book details Harry Harlow's experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Wish I would've known that before reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexism, Hate crime, Death, and Cancer

tiffanylorraine's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Car accident, Mass/school shootings, and Animal cruelty

ka_cam's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

The graphic novel format makes this book go fast, and I think I’d have found it more engaging if I were 1. more actively lonely right now and 2. Less generally familiar with the history/physiology research (so it would be new). At time moving meditation on loneliness but at other times the transitions between personal narrative and research/history felt choppy. Would recommend for anyone interested in loneliness though, since it is so quick to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death, Dementia, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, and Cancer

ce_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Rape, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Suicide

Minor: Bullying

xfallenxnightx's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective slow-paced

4.25

Really helped me understand some of the complexities around loneliness that have plagued our society in the last few years. Loved this take and research on loneliness!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

ilinki's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Abandonment

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

This non-fiction graphic novel illustrates the aspects of loneliness in America using science and sociology to explain why we gravitate towards each other. My favorite aspects of the graphic novel are the illustrations - Kristen Radtke does a fantastic job incorporating text in her sometimes busy, and sometimes simple, graphics. Radtke also uses her own experiences to demonstrate what loneliness means to her. Her reflections resonated with me and while some of the scientific elements went over my head, I appreciate Radtke taking the time to perform ample research on loneliness in America.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death, Cancer, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

anniefwrites's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

It's hard to describe this book; it's not a solutions-based book by any means, but more of an exploration of a topic that weaves together the author's own experience and more scientific and historical data. Radtke does a great job of making every word count while balancing the text with provocative and beautiful images. I do think that her points got a little muddled at times, but in general I felt very seen by this book and would definitely pick up another book by her in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Grief, and Abandonment

krys_kilz's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

The art in this book is gorgeous. The use of color, layout, and text style all really enhanced the book for me.

I found the topic really interesting and the author takes a very informative and researched based approach. I also liked the different vignettes that comprised the book - they did not feel scattered to me. The strongest parts of the book for me were the memoir where the author explored her own experiences with loneliness particularly around family, romantic relationships, and growing up and the social critique on America's obsession with individualism and freedom and how those are very gendered. The aspect I struggled most with was the framing of this book as an exploration of the universal experience of loneliness. The story is not universal, as nothing truly is, so that felt like a major weak point for me. I also felt the author's opinion on guns was deeply rooted in white womanhood. It is a luxury not to need to consider community self-defense.

STRONG trigger warning for animal abuse, animal cruelty, and experiments on animals in this book. She explores Harry Harlow's experiments on monkeys in depth and the details are often quite graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Cancer