Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Go as a River by Shelley Read

15 reviews

sarahbsews's review

emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Racism, Murder, Torture, Violence, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Animal death, Blood, Alcoholism, Infertility, and Miscarriage

alyssatuininga's review

emotional reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Blood, Car accident, Hate crime, War, Death of parent, Death, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Violence, Pregnancy, Animal death, and Infertility

dch7's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Bullying, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Grief

seventhswan's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

I can appreciate that Go as a River is a beautifully descriptive, thematically complex book that a lot of people will really enjoy, but despite seeing this logically, I didn't particularly like it. The first half of the story was tediously slow - I enjoyed the second half a lot more, but they felt like different books to me. I also found that a lot of nuance, depth, and sympathy was given to characters like Victoria's father and brother, while more interesting characters like Wil and Ruby-Alice were deprived of agency and left quite one-dimensional. Their portrayals didn't match with what Victoria claimed to feel about them. And, honestly, I just didn't care about or connect with Victoria that much even though she was objectively going through many difficult things. Pretty much every other character seemed to have a more interesting perspective on what was going on.

The descriptions of the book's setting and the changing time periods were the highlights of this story for me, and I did feel emotional in places purely because of the amounts of suffering various characters went through. However, everything wrapped up so neatly and relied on so many improbable coincidences that it was just not a book that really worked for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Racism

Moderate: Ableism, Domestic abuse, and War

Minor: Miscarriage, Animal death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

katharina90's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

A slow, sad, reflective book with interesting themes, some of which I wish had been explored more (or differently). Some elements of the story felt rushed or underdeveloped. At times it also just dragged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, and Hate crime

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: War, Ableism, Animal death, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, and Miscarriage

rudy23's review

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Drug use, Car accident, and Death of parent

maryfranvs's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Death of parent, Death, Hate crime, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Car accident, Chronic illness, Sexism, Miscarriage, Drug use, War, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual content and Infertility

sophiafpeach's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Grief, Hate crime, and Pregnancy

Minor: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Violence, War, Murder, Racial slurs, Cursing, Animal death, and Grief

mdavis26's review

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Animal death, Miscarriage, Racism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Murder, War, Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

astoriareader's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

• It is the 1940s at a peach orchard in rural Colorado in a town called Iola. Victoria Nash is 17, and she is the woman of the house, as her mother & aunt died about 5 years ago. Due to gender roles of the time period, Victoria is expected to fill the gaps that her mother’s absence left (e.g., domestic duties, cleaning, cooking, etc). Without any choice of her own, she mindlessly fills the roles, and she becomes an adult as a child. She lives with her father, her uncle Og, and her troubled brother Seth.
• One day, Victoria meets a handsome Indigenous man, Wilson Moon aka Wil. **Note: We never learn Wil’s community or nation of people, so I wish I could provide a better description.
• From their first meeting, Victoria and Wil have a spark & chemistry. Sadly, Iola’s community is filled with racism, and Wil quickly becomes an outcast. He becomes a forbidden love for Victoria.
• We follow Victoria’s life from 17 year old to an adult woman. The story spans about 20+ years.

MY THOUGHTS

• I started this book on a Tuesday night, and I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I woke up early the next morning to finish, so I ended up reading it all in 13-14 hours.
• This is the author’s debut novel, and I am surprised, as the writing is top-notch. Read skillfully paints the landscape with words and weaves a beautiful story together. I loved how easy it was to visualize & empathize with the characters.
• Impressive character development. Victoria is a likable, relatable, & capable main character. I felt emotionally connected to the lows and the highs of her story. Also, loved the choice of a diverse love for Victoria. When we meet Victoria, she is only 17, and we get to see her beautiful journey over a few decades.
• Victoria’s story is a heavy read, as there are many heartbreaking moments. I found myself forgetting to breathe in a few parts. As we experience lows, we get to see the rise from the ashes & follow Victoria into adulthood.
• Although the initial part of the book starts slow & sets the stage, it’s worth it. It’s a well-plotted book, and if you trust the process, it becomes an enthralling ride.
• There were so many intriguing themes flushed out in this one: racism, discrimination, prejudice, self-esteem, self-acceptance, gender roles, women’s roles, friendship, loss, grief, motherhood, strength, perseverance, resilience, love, loneliness.
• Coming-of-age story. Although, after finishing, I did look into some of the historical points mentioned by the author (such as the town of Iola), so in a way, this also would fall into a historical fiction category. 

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Ended up finishing in 13-14 hrs. Sweeping coming-of-age tale of Victoria in 1940s in rural Colorado. Masterfully written & plotted. Emotionally hard to read in some parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Sexism, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Miscarriage, War, Animal death, and Car accident