Reviews tagging 'Death'

O Grande Círculo by Maggie Shipstead

78 reviews

c_dalton's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Violence, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

nicoleamanfu's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Hate crime, Homophobia, and Misogyny

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

This is one of the best books I've read this year. I often enjoy books which tell a sweeping story following a character's whole life and I thought it was done brilliantly here. I was so invested in Marian Graves and she felt so much like a real person. However I was also really interested in Hadley, the actor playing Marian in a movie, which meant I never minded when the chapters switched to her story. I enjoyed seeing the parallels and contrasts between the two characters' lives and there was some fascinating commentary about truth and how to tell someone's story. It's a very long book and I've seen it criticised for that but honestly I didn't want it to end. It had so many elements that I loved and it's reminded me how much I enjoy certain types of historical fiction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Child death, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

gracemacdonald94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

What a knockout! This book is gorgeously written, the plot twists, the characters feel full and deep. I appreciated both the historical and contemporary plotlines and was happy with the ways they were enmeshed. I truly think this is one of the better books I will read this year. There are many points of similarity between "Great Circle" and "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" but I am convinced that Great Circle handles everything better, more feelingly, and with more nuance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

oliviareese's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

katewhite77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

A wonderful story with a huge cast of amazing characters that made me think of my grandparents a lot as most of the book is set in the early part of 20th century through eyes of characters a little older than they were. 

My best book of the year so far. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Rape, Grief, and War

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I kept catching myself wanting a movie of this book, even though I know book-movies are often disappointing, and indeed the book itself shows how much movies can miss. But this book is so visually beautiful, a delight for the mind's eye that draws from perspective characters' longings and aesthetic sensibilities to set its scenes. Though it is a long book, I never felt weighed down—when the plot doesn't move forward, the characters do, and this book is much about people's relationships to themselves and each other as it is about Graves attempting her "great circle." I liked the meditations on disappearance and death, on people's purpose in life and the interactions of chance and fate. This book has so much life in it, so much energy and realness and joy. And yet it also explores the legendary, and there is a pervading larger-than-life feeling even as we read about Marian's day-to-day life. It will be a while before I finish processing this one, because the questions it asks are woven so neatly into the story itself, but they're there. I guess, bottom-line, if you find yourself spending too long reading the Wikipedia articles of celebrities, this book might be for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

About the adult/minor relationship:

There's a pretty extensive section where Marian is a teenager in a relationship with a gangster in his late twenties and early thirties. She loves and desires him, but he stalks, extorts, and rapes her as he becomes more desperate to make her into the woman he wants.

The main themes of the book have to do with death and grief, so that and suicide by extension are very present throughout the book, though the deaths that happen are seldom described in great detail.

bmadrid's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, and War

Minor: Abortion

paolina's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Took me ages to get through this one. I was always engaged while reading it, but seldom felt like picking it back up again when I set it down for a while due to all the hardships the characters go through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

siobhanfuller's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment