Reviews tagging 'Death'

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah

17 reviews

goldensisyphus's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Pedophilia

kmaffett's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Terminal illness, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Dementia

carlack7's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A delightful read! So glad I didn't know much about this book going into it. I honestly didn't know if I was reading literary fiction, a mystery or sci-fi! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death and Infertility

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

I read this as a buddy read with a friend.
"Where the Forest Meets the Stars" follows Joanna Teale, a woman who just recently lost her mother and who is trying to heal from her own battle with breast cancer. Jo is a grad student and wants nothing more than to finish her degree and get some control back in her life, but that becomes threatened when a little girl, Ursa, shows up at her home. Ursa claims to be an alien who cannot return to her home planet until she has witnessed five miracles. Jo tries to do the right thing and see if Ursa was reported missing, but she cannot find anyone who seems to know who this Ursa is. Jo befriends her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel, to try to have him help her get Ursa back home, but the pair quickly realize that Ursa may have been sent to them for a bigger purpose.
This was a really beautiful story that is rife with messages about the beauty of life and choosing how to react to the misfortunes around you. Ursa was by far my favorite character, and I was rooting for her and her story from her initial introduction. The way that she sees life, even after everything she has been through, is beautiful, and I loved how she was so focused on seeing the good in the world around her.
Gabriel suffers with his mental health, and I really appreciated how his character was represented. Additionally, I really liked how his struggles were presented. Male mental health is still not talked about nearly as much as it should be, and I think it is so invaluably important to see strong male characters presented and show an accurate portrayal of the struggles they may be facing.
Jo's character was slightly more off-putting from the beginning. She is very cold and closed off because of the obstacles she has faced in her life. I struggled to connect with her, however I did end up enjoying her story arch and how her and Gabriel, along with her and Ursa interacted. Ursa was exactly what Jo needed in her life to help remind her to truly live.
The biggest turn off for me in this book was the alien angle. I am not really into space and aliens, so having a character claim to be an alien did not hook me. Ultimately, I was fine with where the story went, and I appreciate the risk the author took in this angle, but it just did not hit 100% for me personally.
Overall, I do recommend this book to anyone who needs reminded to look at the moments of beauty in the world around them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

siobhanward's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

 This was a surprisingly fun read for me. I did struggle a bit to get into it at first, but once I was in, I really liked it. I thought the plot was cute and I liked the interactions between the characters. The only thing that really stuck out to me as a negative was how Gabe's mental health was handled. I feel like a book being written in 2019 should have a better attitude than "um have you tried being less depressed??" because that just ain't it. I'm also just kind of over the "mental illness is scary" trope.

Despite that, I still really enjoyed this book and had a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to reading more from Vanderah in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Mental illness

pastelmeganes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

The beginning had a decent premise that hooked me in in the first place. Then there was a HUGE genre change from speculative fiction/magical realism to murder mystery suspense. It made it difficult to finish at the end because it really wasnt the direction i wanted the story to go but in sure someone may like it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Child abuse

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Chronic illness and Drug abuse

shyleek's review against another edition

emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm not a sci-fi reader but this alien book has me intrigued. The characters in this books were so well created and deep without feeling like I was reading character descriptions for 200 pages. A predictable read but in the way that you were pretty sure how it was going to end but knew it wasn't going to be easy to get there and wanted to go on the adventure with Gabe, Jo, and Ursa. 

I don't have triggers when I read normally but check the trigger warnings because there is some sensitive material. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Drug use and Terminal illness

jenbean's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Murder

sharebear431's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical content, and Death of parent