Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

6 reviews

katelyn_beee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

• 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

jennywinder's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

This was a read that had me anxiously wanting to know what happens next. It ignited more empathy in me but was also so hard to read. Trauma after trauma occurs but the characters are so resilient and lovable and relatable. I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, but it is worth your time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Deportation

Moderate: Cancer, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Colonisation

If you’re working through your own traumas related to migration, drug trafficking, sexual assault, gun violence, or death perhaps pass on this one

em8ly's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Deportation

ressicajicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Deportation

Moderate: Infertility

mekowaletti's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, and Deportation

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicide, Kidnapping, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

domtheknight's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I feel that I can't rate this book because I'm extremely conflicted about many things.  I read it because someone picked it for a book club I'm in; otherwise I would not have picked it up based on description.  If I hadn't felt that I should finish it in order to participate in book club, I would have put it down almost immediately, and at many additional times throughout the story.  This book was not for me.

As for whether it's for anybody... from a technical writing standpoint, like in terms of making good sentences with words that sound and feel a certain way, Jeanne Cummins has skills.  It's bare and factual for the most part, but every paragraph is screaming in grief, underneath.  Grief, and horror and desperation.  It's creepy in that way, and sometimes that's good and what is right for the story.  But given the subject matter and the author, it honestly crossed the "violence for violence sake and not to further the story" line many times.  

The point of this story, having sat on this review overnight, seemed to be everything that can go wrong will be more awful than you can imagine.  I don't know why you tell that story.  There's no character growth.  Is the point to generate sympathy for immigrants?  Is the point to just be horror?  I think there's too much grief to be horror, but it's not really a grief book either.  It didn't feel like a horror book and it wasn't marketed as horror, but that's the ultimate end story I get from it.  I never cried, I just felt numb.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

I'm not sure I got all the warnings. This book is very dark and fairly graphic about it, the plot is that a woman sees 16 members of her family shot (this is in the first couple paragraphs), manages to save her son, and then must run. They are in Mexico, they take various migrant paths, with some migrants coming from further south countries. There are gangs and violence and Lydia basically decides they need to go to the USA fairly early on and the rest of the story is whether or not they make it, plus some details about situations their fellow migrants are running from. In some cases the details left off the page felt worse than what was on the page.