Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini

71 reviews

mrdonalddarkie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Miscarriage, Murder, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Violence, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Infertility, and Suicide

lorie266's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Injury/injury detail, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Ableism, Abortion, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Violence, War, Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Infertility, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, and Sexual assault

ca018_m's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Death of parent

ariadna_ts's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

One if the BEST books I've ever read. The story and characters are brilliant and amazingly written. It does get a little slow    at the middle. The pacing is great and I couldn't put the book down. It's hard to read as it contains sensible topics. The end is just heartbreaking and leaves you with a bittersweet feeling. This is a book people should read at least once in their life.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, War, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Death, Animal death, Violence, Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, Child abuse, Misogyny, Body horror, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Blood

pennedpaper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and War

Moderate: Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

random19379's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Violence, War, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Medical content, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Alcohol, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit and Abortion

aliwhaley's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad 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? No

3.0

This book is unrelentingly sad. It doesn’t romanticise pain and hardship, which I appreciate, it looks it in the face and points out how hard it is. But, it made for harrowing and difficult reading. It didn’t necessarily need to make a bigger point aside from ‘the Afghan war is terrible’, but its worth saying that it didn’t make a bigger point. I feel like the only thing I learnt from this is that we in the West need to be more compassionate towards the people in Kabul. It felt very specific, it didn’t make me think about anything outside of the situation it describes, and I think that is something of a fault.

More harrowing still is that, this was written in 2007, and the author obviously didn’t know that American troops would pull out of Afghanistan in 2021. That made the ending harder to swallow.

The first 150 pages feel like a preamble until the women move in together, and then the plot starts. After that, the pace picks up and we have something to root for. I felt the first 100 pages dragged a bit.

It does a good job of conjuring a world and drawing you into it. I cared about the characters, I cared what happened, and the villain is believable and terrifying.

But, I give this book three stars because of the slow start and the violent middle. It’s worth having read to learn more about Afghanistan, but it is not an enjoyable experience.

I think my qualm with this book is that it’s important, but it’s not interesting. There’s just something missing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Violence, War, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Abortion and Body horror

Minor: Child death

lajoy's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Abortion

shea485's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I think this book is important. I can think of plenty of people who need to read it. There were characters that deserved better, and that’s the tragedy of this book. Hosseini cuts right into the heart of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, War, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage, Injury/injury detail, Death, Infertility, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion

katrinarose's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I have struggled to rate this book. I didn’t enjoy it, but I did fly through it. The writing style is beautiful and emotional but not overly flowery. My biggest complaint is that the characters were a bit black and white - either painted as a monster or perfect. I appreciate depth and complexity even in the most vile characters. In lacking this, most actions the characters took were a bit predictable.

I did cry while reading this book, but I was almost angry at the fact. Hosseini is praised for how raw he displays the suffering of generations of people in Afghanistan, especially women, but combined with the lack of real character depth, it feels like trauma porn for a western audience. I go back and forth on this opinion because their suffering deserves to be told in all the horror it was, but I can’t decide (and in the end it’s not up for me to decide) whether it’s honoring them or exploiting them.

So I didn’t enjoy it due to the immense pain I felt for the Mariam and Laila (and all the other women who suffered), however I couldn’t put it down either. A 3.5 it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Misogyny, War, Grief, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Gaslighting