Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

33 reviews

missbsbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Vomit

caprivoyant's review against another edition

3.5

Ouch. This book hurt to read.

I just... where's the child neglect content warning? I'll just lump it under child abuse. Yeeks.

Was it beautifully written? 100%
Did I think it was a beautifully crafted novel? Definitely.
Would I ever recommend it to anyone else? Probably not.

I'm gonna go journal. Or do some inner-child work. Or... something.

Ow.


⚠️ PS: the police brutality CW below has to do with slavery-like conditions and punishments (whipping, for example) in a prison. That was the best CW I had for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Vomit, Drug use, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Rape

sorcha's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Violence, Murder, Grief, Drug use, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Terminal illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

rubybooks's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.5

 Sing, Unburied, Sing is a novel mainly focusing on one family in the American South. One of the points of view is from Jojo, a boy who lives with his grandparents and younger sister in Mississippi. We also hear from Jojo's mother, Leonie, who is not always present. She struggles to be a mother, especially as she sees visions of her dead brother from drug use. When Jojo and Kayla's white father, Michael, is released from prison, they travel with their mother to go and get him. There is so much more to the story, and at heart, it is a deep character study of the members of this family.

I found this book while browsing the available audiobooks from my library. I'd definitely recommend listening to it - there are multiple narrators that fit the flow of the story really well, and the narration really brought the writing to life. It is written in a very emotional way and it really made the characters stand out - I loved hearing the characters' inner thoughts. I especially felt like we got to know Jojo very well through the course of this book, and I loved seeing his relationship with his sister. I felt so much sympathy for him and I really just wanted him to be happy!

I was also surprised by the Southern Gothic element, but I enjoyed it and it fit well in the story overall. The way it was done did confuse me quite a bit at the beginning and I felt a little lost, but that got better the further I got in. I wish there was just a bit more of something - maybe plot? I'm not really sure, I think I need to think about my feelings a bit more. I also didn't quite connect to most of the characters (except Jojo) so that did make it harder to be fully invested, but I still did want to learn more about their backstories. Some of the scenes were very hard to read and made me uncomfortable, which did fit the story well, it just personally made it harder for me to fall in love with the book.

This is definitely a heavy read - I'd give content warnings for descriptions of racism, murder, prison, child neglect, drug use, death, cancer, animal death, violence and rape. My favourite books are ones when I am so invested in the characters, and so I didn't quite love this book, but I did really enjoy it and I would recommend it if you keep the heavy content in mind. I might come back to this review at some point because I'm having a hard time sorting out my thoughts. 3.5/5 stars 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Murder, Drug use, Death, Animal death, Cancer, Violence, and Rape

cammiem8's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

I read this for my college freshman English course and found myself looking forward to the class discussions on the book. I’d describe it as Song of Solomon meets the Odyssey, this book is a generation spanning ghost story and a fascinating character study.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Vomit, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Animal death

A lynching is a central plot point. The vomiting scene actively made me nauseous, I really suggest skipping the next two pages after the little sister starts getting sick, it’s extremely graphic. There’s also a graphic drug overdose where

the mother swallows a bag full of meth to avoid arrest and her young son has to help her detox

amelianoelc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism

Moderate: Slavery and Death

Minor: Animal death

mikeebeth's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Racial slurs, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Murder

em_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Violence

wordswoods's review against another edition

Very descriptive writing, not really grabbed by the characters or the plot and it started off with a lengthy, heavily graphic scene of killing an animal and skinning it - not my thing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

camilleingram's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Racism