Reviews tagging 'Death'

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

227 reviews

tea_and_reading's review

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dark emotional reflective sad 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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dakotahreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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zephyxs's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

„Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.“

I have not read a book more perfectly cruel describing the joys and hopes of war right before ending it all in a silent yet painful way. 

I have to be honest, I went into this book briefly knowing, this will be about two school boys (when i picked it up i actually didn’t even knew that it was two boys) who happened to live in the heights of the first world war and decided to fight at the front for their country. That it was so much more than that- well i soon came to realize that!

It starts off perfectly sweet, with making you familiar with the funny-centered, hope-induced characters that can’t wait to finally be able to fight for their country. 
That it starts off in said schoolboy setting is actually something, that not only surprised me but I was actually very fond of. You get to know the characters, let them grow onto you, find out who they love, what jokes they make. 
Only to experience this personality change even more, the moment they start fighting.

I haven’t read many books set in war, but something i always enjoyed was realistic portrayal. Letting the characters actually change under those cruel realities and traumatizing experiences. How they grew dull and emotionless, instead of angry and loud. Letting them loose their joy. Making them cope with dark jokes and leading them down a mental spiral induced by their own humanly fears, the horrors they have to see and the dead comrades they have to leave behind. Exactly this is, what - in my opinion - this book did. It made them change. It changed you while you read it. 

The poem I wrote at the top is a poem frequently mentioned throughout the book. And dare I say it is used in a particular smart way, making its first appearance already before the protagonists enlist. It sets the mood for a hopeful, pride filled almost naive point of view, just to be honest, realistic and relatable for them at the end. I also very enjoyed the little newspaper entries. It pulls you more into the story. I happened to catch myself several times, the moment a newspaper appeared, to be searching it for familiar names, as if I was in that situation, searching for the names of my friends and relatives. 

But my heart not only dropped the moment i read those names. The plottwists that were built into the story actually had me gasping and looking shocked at the book. Obviously, as someone that is not very good in detecting plottwists, if they aren’t the most obvious plotlines, i am rather privileged here and some of you may already have had suspicions, but I myself had none. So the emotions were even stronger.

Lastly, I want to end this review with a scene in the book, that followed me days after I read it and still makes my skin crawl. I will put it into spoilers, but it isn’t a plot spoiler. If you want to read it, you could, it’ll simply show you what I meant with the portrayal of the horror war put soldiers in.

A rotting hand had popped out of the trench wall that morning, and Ellwood watched as a private stopped and shook it. „Good afternoon,“ said the man in an exaggerated posh accent. He didn’t seem to know anyone was watching him. „Very fine weather we’ve been having.“
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bethanwx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-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

5.0

I couldn't put this down. An epic, emotional, tender story of Gaunt and Ellwood, two men coming face to face with gory WWI. Their lives are shattered but they begin to be sewn up again, both anchored by their feelings for the other. Their love story is beautifully delicate, passionate and all-consuming.

Winn carefully crafts how people attempt to mentally protect themselves in war and the futility of war on common people. In the stories of these soldiers, many no more than teenagers, we also see that the priveleges of money, class and connections play am important role in survival.
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simoneg's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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

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isabelcostamurray's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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anj's review against another edition

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

3.0

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damianwayne's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

I hear the breaking bodies scream.
Thankful I have hit my mark, 
I slither through the trenching dark.
You bleed to death in all my dreams.

I knew I would love this the moment I began reading since two of my favourite books are Atonement and Maurice. I was right (I often painfully am). This book is harrowing (as was Atonement), but the effects of war itself and the damaging and corrupt nature of it are far more focused on than in Atonement, where the effects of the war are specific to Robbie, and are seen more as a fallout and focus on the impact Briony had on his life. War breaks Ellwood in every single way; war breaks Robbie Turner by killing him, but ultimately not his hope. It is not the war itself that drives him partially insane, but the thirst and pain and nightmares.

As for Maurice, I suppose In Memoriam’s ending is happy (hopeful) but not nearly to the level of Maurice and Alec. Maurice is an inherent tragedy as a contemporary piece of fiction that must be a fantasy for the sake of its ending and lack of the drafted monologue due to the impending threat of the First World War. In Memoriam seems like a logical follow up in that sense. Part of my adoration for Maurice led me to initially question their moving to Brazil (‘until my death or England’s’) but it has grown on me as the natural progression of Ellwood’s disgust with England and the need for them to avoid the fallout of World War Two.

There is a tragedy in the ending of this book despite all the hope it left me with. It is simply the notion that Ellwood loved Brazil, and his life he created whilst there, but simultaneously Gaunt was aware that Ellwood would never be able to love him again. Whilst that itself is tragic, I think about how much Ellwood grew to despise England and everything surrounding the country, which is why there is such a barrier preventing him from loving Gaunt. Henry spends so much of this novel shying away from his German heritage and instead consistently— and persistently— reminding everyone that he’s not only British first, but essentially exclusively British. And that is something that will never change, in the same way he ends up longing for both Ellwood’s love and Europe, meaning that he’s made himself content with a life with many imperfections. I can only hope a steep incline in progress occurs post-canon and their love is soon rectified.

The biggest personal tragedy is perhaps how I have been consistently searching for which song from Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying would be most fitting (I decided upon ´Till Forever and Fool Me A Good Night) only for the title track to be the absolutely most applicable to Ellwood at the end: ‘That’s why I, I don’t cry’, ‘That’s why I can’t love you now’
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proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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

När första världskriget bryter ut är många av pojkarna på internatskolan Preshute College ivriga att få ta värvning. Inte Henry Gaunt, som är emot kriget. Men när hans tyska mor ber honom göra det för att skydda familjen från spionmisstankar så anser han sig inte ha mycket till val. Nu slipper han åtminstone kämpa mot sina förbjudna känslor för sin bäste vän, Sidney Ellwood. Men det dröjer inte länge innan hans skolkamrater följer efter honom till skyttegravarna - även Ellwood. 

Den här debutromanen hamnar definitivt på min lista över årets bästa böcker! Jag har läst många böcker om andra världskriget, som då oftast handlat om koncentrationslägren, men få böcker om första världskriget. Här tas vi med ned i skyttegravarna och får veta exakt hur eländigt och skrämmande det var. Den romantiska bilden många unga män hade om att ta värvning förändrades väldigt snabbt när de väl var på plats. Det är fullt begripligt att de som var med vid fronten förändrades som människor, konstigt vore det annars. Det är många gånger hjärtskärande läsning, men här finns också en hel del hopp. Kamratskapen bland soldaterna får stor betydelse och skildras på ett briljant sätt av Winn. 

Det finns likheter med "Den hemliga historien" och "Döda poeters sällskap" och gillar man stämningen i de böckerna så är jag rätt säker på att man kommer att tycka om "In memoriam". Trots det till synes tunga ämnet så är boken lättläst och faktiskt svår att lägga ifrån sig. Texten "lättas upp" av dikter (Ellwood är poet), brev och tidningsurklipp med listor på döda och sårade. Relationen mellan Gaunt och Ellwood är fascinerande att följa, särskilt som homosexualitet var olagligt på den tiden. Ändå var det inte ovanligt att pojkar "fördrev tiden" med varandra och det var på något vis acceptabelt. Så länge man inte blev påkommen...

Det är oftast svårare att sätta ord på varför man älskar en bok, för hur man än försöker så hittar man sällan rätt resonemang. När jag läser igenom det jag skrivit så vet jag inte om jag kommer att övertyga någon om att det här är en bok som inte får missas. Jag får helt enkelt hoppas att många ändå väljer att plocka upp den!
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annabella's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this book fast not because it was incredible but the writing is easy to flick through. I thought I’d be more emotional at it but no tears were shed! It definitely shows the horrors of the war in both a physical and mental trauma sense, and I thought it sadness about how it permanently changed Ellwood‘s sense of loving Gaunt. When
Gaunt apparently died and Ellwood was moping
I thought it was a bit slow and didn’t know how else it could progress. The book feels not so much a love story but an account of how messed up the war efforts were and showing the intimate human relationships amongst a horrific situation. But from booktok etc it feels more advertised as a tragic mlm novel so that’s what I expected more. 
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