Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

181 reviews

devynn812's review

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, and Murder

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I saw the movie years ago and remember it differently than the book. So some of the content was surprising to me. I’m undecided on how I feel about these differences.i think I liked the movie better than the book because the movie was more dramatic and had actual resolution. The book is satisfying in a different way, and in some ways, more realistic in that when people die, the rest of us still need to find a way to keep living.

I thought the writing was strong, but I’m conflicted on the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

samuraipie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

An emotionally challenging read.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Kidnapping

lauraginger's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault and Grief

annadrinksmilk's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

tamzy6's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-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

3.5

3.5 stars. It's a beautiful story and I really liked the concept of the Inbetween. The story is filled with broken people but they didn't feel like caricatures. Each one of them had distinct and rich personalities. It was really bittersweet seeing them grow up and experience the things that Susie will never be able to do in human form.

UNTIL... The ending.

What the fuck was that about? I really disliked how Sebold just HAD to give Susie that 'perfect' ending in human form, where Susie kind of possessed Ruth's body and then had sex with Ray? I'm all for fantasy and magical realism, we are reading about a ghost's thoughts after all, but romanticising this possession felt vulgar and weird. This could have been a 4 star read but meh, it felt weird after that.

Also, how did this book get published without a copyeditor because I found there were lots of weird phrases and spelling mistakes, e.g. using "reverted" instead of "riveted", and I had to re-read it to make sure I wasn't imagining things. You know, basic writing stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and Murder

liml's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Murder

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Susie Salmon is tragically murdered as a teenager, but goes on to watch her family, and their grief and healing, from beyond the grave.

This one is the next installment in my “Project DNF” (a goal to finish all the books I’ve DNFed at other points in my life) and I’m really glad I picked it back up. 95% of this book was really beautiful and poignant, as well as really sad. I thought it was touching if a bit morose, and found myself really invested in the characters. In particular, I enjoyed seeing how the ripple effects of a death like this can impact so many people involved, even beyond immediate family members and close friends.

That said, I felt like the last few chapters represented a dramatic shift in tone and substance, and I really did not like the note the book ended on. It felt like we were building towards a certain type of story for the bulk of the novel, only to be thrown some weird curveballs at the end. This is, in large part, a book about closure—but unfortunately, it offers very little of that to the reader.

If you can handle really sad stories and want to read an interesting reflection on grief, this might be for you, but I truly wish it had gone a different way at the end.

CW: Death/child death; sexual assault/rape; violence; grief; infidelity

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

vincentedward16's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

How are Mr. Harvey died is dumb and ruined the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, and Racism

scarlett_f's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

Full of triggers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

May be triggers for some: rape, sexual assault, murder.