Reviews tagging 'Death'

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

12 reviews

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

It's a beautiful book, largely about the author's grief around loosing her father, closely followed by a retelling of the biography of a horrible, flawed man and his hawk from the past. The passages about her hawk are so real you feel she's preening her feathers in front of you but these are third to the aforementioned.

Perhaps I'd built this book up too much in my head. After all, it's on a subject I find so interesting and I've had it on my shelf a good four years before it was read. It was slow and I found myself disappointed that the book neatly finished, only to start yet ANOTHER chapter. I wouldn't read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Depression, antidepressants, hunting, hunting of animals, guns, misogyny

abi_sarah's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Very much enjoyed this book! 

It felt so genuine and full of raw emotion throughout. Helen’s writing about her experiences of raising/ training a Goshawk whilst going through grief and depression was so refreshing to read, because there wasn’t any big underlying philosophical meaning. It was just a honest account of a woman’s difficult period of her life and how she coped. 

I want to read more books like this, I loved visualising myself out and about with Helen and Mabel (the goshawk) just living and being.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

zoinkie's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

ashenlar's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The author's relationship with birds and rural England/nature tied together with her relationship with her dad and her emotions around his death make for a powerful memoir reflecting on grief and depression - a tough, emotional read but incredibly rewarding with beautiful, precise prose

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, and Death of parent

rcsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

It's part memoir, part about hawks and part a biography of T.H. White. The writing is beautifu,  and I liked how it dealt with grief. On the other hand, Hawking seems incredibly cruel to the animals and T.H. White sounds like a horrible person!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

mandkips's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, and Mental illness

Minor: Blood

kilonshele's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

ehmannky's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

It's weird because there's so much going on in this book and I feel like it shouldn't really work as well as it does. Because it's about falconry, it's about T.H. White, it's about goshawks and creating a bond with nature that is respectful, it's about one woman's specific journey to coping with the sudden and traumatic loss of her father. And it shouldn't work, but the overarching theme of grief really just ties everything together. 

There were parts (especially some of the falconry parts) where I felt myself just sort of skimming, but then they'd be followed by moments of grief I felt were so relatable that I had to put my book down for a moment before I could continue reading. It's a lovely book, and I recommend it to others who are grieving but are put off by the overwhelmingly Christian religious grief-coping books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

amberinbookland's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

jenlovesbooksandcoffee's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Antisemitism, and Abandonment