Reviews tagging 'War'

Belonging by Umi Sinha

3 reviews

shroff_sanjana's review against another edition

dark emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Abortion, Colonisation, Grief, Miscarriage, and War

rieviolet's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

I really appreciated the historical aspect of the novel and how the author built the setting and included elements of Indian culture into the narration.

The multiple point of views and timelines plus the different narrative styles (diary, letter, more straightforward narration etc.) made for a varied and engaging read. However, having three different POVs with all their thematical threads (along with a page-count on the shorter side)  made the narration
feel somehow rushed at times, like some themes and characters needed
some more exploration. 
I think the themes of racism and colonisation were the ones better depicted, because the author explored them from many different angles, giving a more complex and thorough picture. 

The writing style was okay, it wasn't bad by any means but it didn't wow me. I usually underline passages/sentences that I really like but there wasn't anything that really stood out to me while reading.

There were quite a lot of family mysteries/secrets that got revealed slowly over the course of the narration. It certainly helped to keep the reader interested but I think that it became a bit too much; especially when it came to the character of Rebecca there were so many revelations, it felt a bit too melodramatic by the end.

Also, I think at times the tone was a bit too graphic, maybe unnecessarily, I don't know, it just did not feel very well inserted and blended into the narration. For example there were many dreamlike sections (at least it felt to me like there were too many, becoming a bit repetitive) that just went on and on, really piling up quite weird and disturbing details.

The ending came a bit suddenly and it was really open-ended, I have to admit I was a little disappointed by it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Sexism, Medical content, Racism, Colonisation, War, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Vomit, Infidelity, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Confinement, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Antisemitism and Fatphobia

shutupdivs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

i absolutely love multi-generational sagas and to think this one's set partly in colonial india and inter-war england !!!! i think this is an extremely important educational read, while it is also one of those stories ur gran tells you at bedtime :) the writing is wonderful, the pacing is just right, and i thought the character arcs were brilliant. what each narrator went through, their inner conflicts, and how those affected the family as a whole, everything is well thought out. i think sinha is a writer to look out for !!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Infidelity, War, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Self harm, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders