Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

14 reviews

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

This is an emotional story. A historical fiction. It's about a challenging lifestyle during a horrible time in history. Elsa is a frail woman or at least thats what her parents have beaten into her. She will never marry, have children, or have a job. At age twenty-five, Elsa starts to rebel against what she's been told. She meets Rafe and gets pregnant. They get married and live with his family on their farm. Elsa's happiness is short lived. When the dust storms take over Texas, Elsa has to decide how to save her family. Do they stay in Texas and fight for their land or do they head to California (The land of milk and honey)not knowing what waits for them? The relationship between Elsa and Loreda(Elsa's daughter)is one filled with turmoil. They love each other and want what's best for their family. They both have different ideas of how to get it. I enjoyed the writing on both sides of their relationship. I thought Elsa was doing what she thought was best from her past experiences and Lareda is young and full of life. She's ready to fight injustice not realizing what she will have to sacrifice to get what she wants. Laredo is whiny at times and I  would have liked about fifty to a hundred pages less. I  don't think we needed everything that was written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Body shaming

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Child death, and Animal death

Minor: Medical trauma, Medical content, Police brutality, and Sexual content

franklola's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Sexism, Chronic illness, Bullying, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Classism, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Animal death, and Child death

nurseann7161's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Classism, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, and Slavery

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Violence, Medical content, Gun violence, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Excrement, Sexism, and Police brutality

kcbatts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Death of parent

Moderate: Violence and Gun violence

Minor: Blood and Medical content

anasilva's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.75

My first Kristin Hannah book, after hearing great praises for her work. It didn’t work for me. Reading this felt like and exaggeration of sad misfortunes thrown into a predictable, too long book. I enjoyed reading about the Dust Bowl and what it represented, but the plot and characters were underdeveloped and very flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Miscarriage, Death, Chronic illness, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content and Police brutality

readbycarina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Classism, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Police brutality

redheadorganist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Sexual content, Medical content, Blood, Child death, and Police brutality

corriejn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Move over, Grapes of Wrath. I got through this entire book without realizing it's by the author of "The Nightingale," but I'm not surprised-- similar depth of characters and bringing to life historical settings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Medical content, Violence, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Minor: Vomit

The audiobook version includes a really lovely short interview with the author and the narrator, that sheds interesting light on the process of writing the book and creating the characters, as well as the process of bringing the story to life via the audiobook narration.

carissa230's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

 At this point I would probably read a menu if Kristin Hannah wrote it.

The Great Depression and Dust Bowl was a hard time for the United States. The Four Winds is a look at what it was like for one family to survive.

Elsa had a rough childhood, never felt like she fit with her family, and was always looking for her place in the world. One night she meets a young man and they procreate. As soon as her parents find out they dump her at his parents house and pretty much never speak to her again.

Elsa finds her place in the world among this new family and is thriving helping run the farm. When the Dust Bowl hits Texas they are hit hard. Elsa has to decide what is the best thing to save her family. When she decides to take her children and move to CA she thinks this is the beginning of a new life for them. Little did she know that they would be treated like pariahs.

As the families in CA grow more and more desperate to survive, the ones that have are getting more aggressive with the have nots.

It is sad to see how in some ways history is repeating itself with people blaming immigrants for their problems. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Police brutality

Moderate: Medical content and Murder

mandi4886's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia