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Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Broken Wings (Illustrated): Poetic Romance Novel by Kahlil Gibran
8 reviews
dragonlilly's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This is both a love story and a social commentary on arranged marriage and the power of rich religious leaders. The story also explores the lives of women and the little care that is taken at times to understand women, especially through a lens of misogyny and that discussion was quite interesting and thoughtful. The topic of the couple's adultery is also explored and somewhat described as both adultery and not adultery at the same time, because Salma is forced to marry due to the religious and social power others have over her, which to the couple effectively makes the marriage false because while a contract was made, it was not true in the heart of Salma or our main character. Overall, I greatly admired the discussions our main couple had, and how much truth and wisdom was ingrained in them. In general I admire Gibran's wisdom as a whole. The writing was beautiful, but at times it was a bit too flowery and complicated, and this definitely caused me to not connect with the characters emotionally until the very last section of the story where I became deeply moved for our characters. There were still tons of moments where I loved the flowery writing, even though reading it was challenging, and I could see a lot of inspiration from the Song of Solomon within the sections on love, which I thought was perfect for this poetic story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Grief, and Death of parent
dontwanthvn's review
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent
slgy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Child death and Death of parent
ashlikes's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racial slurs, and Death of parent
Moderate: Infertility, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, and War
bookishfaye's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Tbh this might just be the most beautiful story I ever have the privilege of reading in my entire life. The fact that this is likely an autobiographical account of Gibran hurts so much more & my heart aches rn
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Abandonment
williamgideon's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.5
The language was beautiful but I just couldn't resonate with it since Gibran has a very idealistic worldview. Plus the edition I had was full of typos.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
mengzhenreads's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Incredible writing paired with a tragic love story that despite it's short length, packed a huge punch and is definitely a book that I want to read again to annotate and mark down all my favorite quotes because oh my god, the WRITING was just stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Emotional abuse
Minor: Misogyny
sarasbooks's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The broken wings is a poetic novel, a tale of tragic love, set in Beirut, Lebanon. Gibran describes the passion and love of a young man for Selma, a young woman, who is forced into marriage with a man she doesn't love. It's a book about love, life, human existence, happiness and deals with many social issues of the time, such as religious corruption and the lack of women's rights. There's so much in this book. Although love is the focus, it's not only about love.
I cannot even begin to explain how much I loved this book. No matter what I say, I will not do it justice. It's probably the book with the most beautiful writing I have ever read. I now want to read everything Gibran has ever written. I tabbed SO much and it still wasn't enough because I just wanted to tab every single paragraph. I just finished it and I already want to reread it and annotate. I just know that I will be rereading this book many times in the future.
I'm so overwhelmed by thoughts and feelings that it's very hard to clearly articulate why this book is so phenomenal.
It's a very short book. But I didn't speed through it. I read it very slowly, savoring every word. Sometimes I reread the same sentence three times so that it could have a bigger impact on me.
If you love poetic writing, character-driven books, short books with depth and tragedy, this one's for you! Please read it, I want every one to have the same beautiful experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Death