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juanat77's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bookreviewmystic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
I don't even know how to work out my feelings about Winter Garden. This book was dumped into my lap by Amazon when I signed up for KU. It was an audiobook & I needed something to listen to while waiting in the school pickup line. Honestly, I didn't even read the summary of the book, I just started playing it. So you can imagine my surprise when I was completely captivated by this harrowing retelling of the siege of Leningrad.
This book will break your heart & tape it back together, just to turn around & completely obliterate it. Then after you become awestruck at the tremendous amount of strength & courage of these women, you will learn that you can take the pieces of your obliterated heart, mix it with some love from others, and form it into something new: a heart that holds love so strong that it stands the tests of time, trials, & tribulations because it holds close what matters most. Family: born & found.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
barrettcmyk's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
If you know anything at all about the siege of Leningrad, you’ll know this is not going to be an easy read.
First third or so of the book (before it’s clear the fairy tale is a veiled story of the Siege) was tough to get through for entirely different reasons. At that point each of the family members did such a marvelous job of isolating themselves from one another I found myself yelling “just hug, dammit!” at the pages.
The last two chapters or so were sob-fests, sweet and heart breaking, but … maybe a little far-fetched? Still, a good story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War
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