jowmy4 's review for:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

This is one of my absolute favourite books. I have read this book a few times before, and this time listen to an audiobook. It was even better than I rembered it being. The beginning is very slow and quite difficult to get into, but sets up important context which pays off later in the book. I think this is, objectively, a good book, but I'm also aware that probably the reason I love it so much is because it hits a lot of my personal preferences: class and social issues, rural villages, industrial towns, a variety of interesting family dynamics, friendships, characters learning and growing, and seemingly-unrequited romance. The characters are all really well developed, as well, and Mrs Thornton and Mr Thornton are probably two of my favourite characters of all time. The story is sad at points, but I had a big smile on my face at the end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood

Several of the characters die, including

both parents of the main character. Another character loses his child (who is in her late teens). There are further deaths besides.

Illness, death and grief are, in my opinion, treated realistically, and are given quite a lot of narrative time.