Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

16 reviews

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.25

This book is really raw and hard-hitting, and it has about every trigger warning possible. It's a world that many of us who are white and middle-class don't know and have been able to ignore as the faraway south. But the issues that this family faces are solvable, and it's all of our responsibility to change policy to put those social programs in place. This book is also a great anti-"classic literature" example - it's lyrical and winding and shows that there is not one way to write.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Abandonment

deirdrelk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A profound book that manages to be  gut-wretching and beautiful at the same time. While Ward is in a class of her own, fans of Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison will find a home in her work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, and Child abuse

kellyofcali's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A book written with shifting perspectives and narrators about a family struggling with addiction, incarceration, illness, racism, and life. It's a powerful story, and the writing style is unique and often beautiful. I struggled when it turned a bit more magical/spiritual, but it is a truly singular novel and voice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Abandonment

blessingo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

This is a story to read carefully, feeling the smarting rays of the Mississippian sun and the haze of cigarette smoke mingling with ochre. Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing is about twelve-year-old Jojo's family, with his drug-addicted mother, his baby sister, Kayla, journeying to see their white father and boyfriend who's returning from prison, and in it, Jesmyn shows exactly why her 2011 book, Salvage the Bones won a National Book Award. This book is very dark, emotionally trying, and occasionally, gross. In the literal first few pages of the book, the grandfather literally slaughters a goat for the family to eat. The writing in this is rich and devastating, punching you to your core. I felt for the ghost of Richie and the ghosts of the past present in Leonie's brother's ghost that haunts her.

I feel like this book wasn't good for me to read at the particular time I read it because I had just finished reading The Color of Water, a similarly very emotional and trying book. This most likely made the story more tedious for me personally, because my psyche was honestly exhausted, lol. But this book was captivating, probably some of the best writing I've read this year? If you're looking for a deeply afflicted, turbulent, and shining novel to read, this is definitely for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Racism

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Abandonment

keatonslowlyreads's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, and Vomit

Moderate: Cancer, Physical abuse, Rape, Terminal illness, Police brutality, and Abandonment

aappel2491's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Murder, and Abandonment