Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

4 reviews

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

2.5

A painfully sad and tense novel, but beautifully written. The characters are richly written and will leave you asking for more because the well feels quite deep...but ultimately, the depths go unexplored.

I had to read it for school, and the triggering content made it difficult to finish and process. The complete lack of quotation marks and rarely used paragraph breaks was too tricky to get used to. At least the book led to lively class discussions, so that's something in its favor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Domestic abuse, Grief, Outing, Vomit, Ableism, Child death, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Gaslighting, Racism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Sexism, Torture, and Violence

zombiezami's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

Damn, Uzodinma Iweala sure knows how to write sad stuff. As with <i>Beasts of No Nation</i>, it's hard for me to say that I "liked" the book or that I would recommend it because the content is so upsetting. I will say that it was beautifully written, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Child death, Toxic friendship, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Misogyny, and Cursing

Minor: War, Rape, and Drug use

death of a sibling

, conversion therapy,

bury your gays

jojo_'s review against another edition

challenging emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Grief, Misogyny, and Outing

Minor: Blood, Death, Child death, and Sexual harassment

shelbyjo's review against another edition

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was a complete surprise to me.  I thought it was about one tough topic, and then bam, all of a sudden a whole other heartbreaking topic is revealed.  Once we got to part 2, from Meredith's POV, I started to get the hints of what was to come, but I still wasn't prepared. This book is heartbreaking, and unfortunately extremely relavent to the ongoing racial issues that Black people face every day in this country. 
It was a short book, and I often feel like things are rushed or characters aren't fully fleshed out in a 200-ish page book, but the author did a great job.  I felt like I really knew the characters, and nothing felt overly rushed. 
I listened to the audiobook, and thought both narrators did an extremely good job, I highly recommend the audio version. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts