Reviews tagging 'Grief'

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

29 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

caramiaculpa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Read this for Defector Reads a Book and was not disappointed. Yes, it’s a mix of biography, memoir, and treatise on grief. Beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Outing, Colonisation, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.75

This book is like a gut punch—grief is a funny little thing. It works in ways that are hard to predict or identify. And this book puts that in the most beautiful phrasing possible. The hawking stuff kinda grossed me out but the way that Macdonald interwove t.h. white’s experiences was really compelling. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia

cyluho's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, and Death of parent

bluejay21's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

wishbea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Grief, and Death of parent

taural41's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

katiemccreary's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

wordswithjustine's review

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

As a fan of The Once and Future King and nature writing and as someone whose dad died less than 2 months ago, this was the right book at the right time for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent

As a bit of a T.H. White fan because of The Once and Future King, I was disturbed to learn many challenging things about him that I never knew before. It was interesting, but not always in a good way for me.