Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Sturmhöhe - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

138 reviews

ghostsversion's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

This book really was… something. Compared to Agnes Grey, this was like going from learning how to swim to diving in the middle of the ocean. This is of course a different type of book so it isn’t really a shock. I was shocked though when finding out that

the POV of this book were a Mr Lockwood and Ellen Dean, and not at the very least Catherine Linton nee Earnshaw.

It was a really interesting read and I might have rated it higher if not for

the excessive amount of incest and the constant racism and stereotyping of Romani people.

Also to the people who consider this a romance, I hear you and I somehow get you but please don’t go looking for this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

flor_peredo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

ameliaow3ns's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

spiderelsa's review against another edition

5.0

What a journey! A good-faith, but unthorough, effort by one kind-hearted person rippled cruelty for three generations, all presided over by a Bible thumper servant. 

Everyone in this book needs therapy, a Warmie, and a new book they've never read before. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Grief

bashsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Writing reviews for classics that I like is never easy - I always feel immense pressure to say something profound and original about a work that 1) I enjoyed and 2) so did everyone else. Of course, the trouble with such a well-liked book is that everything profound and original about it has already been said, more or less.

So let me say some basic and trite (but none the less true to how I feel) things about Wuthering Heights.
 
First and foremost, Brontë's toxic, passionate speeches from Heathcliff and Catherine (Sr.) about each other fuck severely. Catherine's "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" confession? Healthcliff's proclamation about the depth of Catherine's affection for him compared to Linton? The "You say I killed you - haunt me, then!" argument? All bangers. Go off, you absolute maniacs. 

Secondly, and speaking of the haunting by Catherine of Heathcliff, the thread of her ghost trying to get into Wuthering Heights throughout the tale is sewn into the story with just enough detail to be compelling without being overwrought - from the early scene Lockhood witnesses all the way to Heathcliff's death under the open window. I especially like the lack of concrete proof of the ghost and the skepticism of the storytellers themselves. 

And now, thirdly, the storytellers and the frame story in general have been fun to turn over in my head. From the beginning, I wondered, why are Lockwood and Nelly our narrators? I think there are dozens of valid answers to this question. Two of my favorites includeto create distance from the narrative to drop details & increase unreliability and to provide perspectives closer to the intended readers. I'm especially obsessed with Nelly Dean and the constant interjections of her opinions into her retelling. 

Something specific to the audiobook version that I listened to - the Spotify version read by Billie Fulford-Brown - is that it was read fantastically. Fulford-Brown clearly had a great handle on the text, reading all the dialogue with accurate emotion. She also gave the characters distinct voices without being over-the-top. Her performance made Brontë's mid-19th century prose much more accessible.

Anyway. There's a lot more I could say about Wuthering Heights - for example, Brontë's descriptions of the moors are a masterclass in thematic use of setting - but I'll cut myself off here, lest I write a whole paper. Let me end by saying it's fucked up that Kate Bush managed to successfully summarize and convey the main storyline of such a complex book in a 4.5-minute song after only watching the last ten minutes of a movie adaptation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cursing, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Racial slurs, and Kidnapping

-Various illnesses are described in detail (some fatal and some not).

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

asrasher's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

intense, absurd, bizarre, but I ended the book with a resounding emotion of "damn, I get why people love this book." 

it takes you on a truly immense character journey spanning 3 generations and 50 years - and doesn't start coming together till the last chapter or so. 

overall, completely worthy of its legendary status. I felt like honestly it could have been longer/more fleshed out at the end, that's my only critique. The wrap up of the younger generations story and the breaking of the cycle of trauma felt possibly like something EB struggled to write, or express. Which to be fair, makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Incest

thorney's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Torture

kimveach's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I assumed this novel was a romance, but it was a tale of class, obsession, and revenge.  While I can appreciate this classic, I didn't enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

goodolnicole's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, and Physical abuse