Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

93 reviews

girlfawn's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Grief

ltux's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Grief, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

books_and_coffee_vibes's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This book was really good and sad at the same time. I really felt the pain of the salmon family and I loved how I could follow their grieving. 

It was very realistic in the sense of not getting any closure. I also really enjoyed the fact that we are viewing it from Susie’s perspective and how she yearns to be with her family and make it right. 

It was a really good book and very sad. I really do feel sorry for what the characters went through but I’m glad they have managed to move on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Death, and Sexual assault

book1hoarder's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Child death

Minor: Pedophilia, Child death, Rape, and Animal death

serein42's review

emotional hopeful sad 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment and Violence

Minor: Animal death

alyse_turns_pages's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, and Pedophilia

r_skye's review

dark emotional reflective 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Sexual violence, Grief, Death, Pedophilia, and Rape

eelizard's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Confinement, Death, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Stalking

stargirlmolly's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Pedophilia, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexual content, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

kly227's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was extremely fascinating in the beginning. The premise is promising but it does not follow all the way through. 
I found myself emotional many times during this book. It put me in a dark headspace going to bed each night, which was hard. I felt connected to the characters because the family set up is exactly like mine as a child- and I would have been Susie. I found myself empathizing so much for Susie and her family in the first half; I found this book to be a very real and very difficult demonstration of grief.
On the negative side… the characters were extremely flat and hardly had any purpose for the story. The development of the plot was strange- as I kept hoping it would go a certain way or that there was a reason I was learning something specific about a character, and it never came back. This was frustrating and made a lot of the random paragraphs of detail throughout the book literally pointless. 

The end of this book was really rocky. There was a paranormal, tricky sex scene that was basically sexual assault (but is glorified to be this amazing, transcendent experience between a 14 y/o and a 20 y/o) that made me extremely uncomfortable. It did not align with the rest of the story and it ruined some characters for me. Loose ends with characters were never tied up or dealt with in any shape or form. Characters were never held accountable for their mistakes and nothing was ever reprimanded.
Finally, maybe this is a personal thing, but I was not happy that the lovely bones were never found. That was my desire the entire time, and maybe it’s more realistic that we lose the body of the person forever but darn it! There are still so many questions. 

Going to watch the very low-rated movie now, wish me luck!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Blood, Grief, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence