Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

11 reviews

uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexism, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

jessi_lou95's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Blood

lrose02's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is my second reread of the month, but a book I read when I was a teenager. It’s a lot darker than I remember but was also a light read as it was YA. It’s a change in genre for me. As I’m much older reading this, as I was Faith’s age during my first read, I find myself more protective of her. She’s let down by everyone, except the one boy her age. Her mother is cruel at times, but you come to understand her. She’s a mother doing her best after the mess her husband leaves her. You see the Reverend through Faith’s eyes, and the way she admires him. At the end, you become just as disillusioned as her. You also become protective of How, the same way she is. This is the second mystery type book I’ve read but I found it was much more satisfying, and the darkness is both necessary but accepted just as Faith accepts her facts of life. She’s so intelligent but still childlike, torn between being a young girl but not quite an adult. The ending is satisfying and as happy as the style of book can be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Suicide and Religious bigotry

yasaman's review against another edition

adventurous 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder

emmasbookshelf22's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

pati2804's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

More of a mystery than I expected but I found the characters enjoyable, the plot surprising and I loved the scientific thinking that's weaved in. Really solid book that I would recommend 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicide, and Murder

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I've been tardy with the review for this one because I wrote a long, thoughtful passage, which was then swallowed by the latest Windows update closing all my tabs. *grumble*

When her family is whisked away to a remote island community so that her preacherman and natural scientist father can join an archeological dig, Faith knows that she isn't being told everything. She finds out that her father has been implicated in a scandal over faked fossils, including his greatest find, that is implied to be a winged human.. and then her father is found dead after apparently throwing himself off a cliff. 

Refusing to believe that her father ended his own life, Faith's mood takes a dark turn. She contrives to invent a ghost to have her revenge on a maid who was mean to her, and in her thorough investigation of her father's things finds that he has hidden away a biological specimen with some very mysterious properties.. some might say supernatural; as a Rationalist, Faith thinks this needs more scientific investigation.

Being set in the late 1800s this allows a critique of evolution and creationism, and questions whether science is really pitted against the Church. It is also unashamedly Feminist and explores some of the shonky and emergent scientific theories that underpin some of the (misguided) "rational" explanations made to explain why men are better than women.

As in other titles by the author, Hardinge brings her own blend of well researched historical drama, shadowy mystery and darkly cruel supernaturality, to a story including hallucinatory dreams, and this girl who is fascinated by snakes, cat skulls, and rats.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

actualspinster's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Suicide

rainetheghost's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder