Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

19 reviews

katharina90's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

This novel conveyed a love for words and language while exploring the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary.

I enjoyed this historical backdrop and was excited by the premise of a fictional companion dictionary of "lost words" aka entries rejected mostly for sexist and classist reasons.

What fell felt for me was the plot and characters. Everyone was fairly one-dimensional and relationships superficial. The plot was slow moving for the most part, but oddly rushed at times that feel crucial. 

Ultimately I think what bothered me the most was that the many tragic developments towards the end didn't serve a purpose that was satisfying to me, so the heartbreak felt pointless or at least unnecessary. 

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acasiamae's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0


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sbox's review against another edition

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emotional informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

While I did get quite emotional at parts, and found the story engaging at times, it didn’t take a strong enough hold on me. I think trying to fit in all the historical check points, along with a lot of “womanhood” check points, made the plot a bit lackluster for me. 

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Pip Williams' The Dictionary of Lost Words is one of the most meaningful, thought-provoking novels I have ever read, and yet there were parts of it that I struggled with.

As the title suggests, this is a book about words, more specifically those words that are not considered important enough to be compiled into the first-ever edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Since the task of compiling the OED is largely left to older white men, inevitably their ingrained biases ensure that the dictionary is skewed towards a male view of the world, and this is writ large when it comes to the male attitude to women.

In the year 1901, one of the OED's loyal fans discovered that the word "bondmaid" was missing from the dictionary. It is from this factual nugget that Pip Williams has constructed the fictional character and heroine of the novel, Esme Nicoll. The story of the novel is the story of Esme's life,  covering  late Victorian-era Great Britain to the First World War. 

The novel was written almost entirely (
aside from the last two chapters
) from Esme's POV, and this was where I had the most difficulty. Even though I could see Williams had crafted Esme with great care, and I (mostly) liked and sympathised with her, she seemed passive in many ways and I struggled to truly understand her motivations and feelings. 

In terms of other characters, I most liked Harry, Esme's widowed father, Edith "Ditte" Thompson, Esme's mentor and mother figure, and Lizzie, a serving maid at  Murray household where Esme spends her childhood and whom Esme eventually
develops a close bond with
.

I also had some issues with the novel's structure and pacing, which seemed uneven to me. Even though the beginning of each chapter stated the year and the month in which it was set, the time jumps could be hours, days, weeks, or even months at a time. These jumps were not always consistent, leaving me confused as to just how much time had passed between the beginning and end of a chapter. It kind of felt a bit lumpy.

Ultimately, it was the themes of this novel that I most strongly resonated with - the way certain words were defined to degrade not only by gender but by social status, the way words could come to mean more than one thing, the development of slang and curse words, and most poignantly, the inadequacy of words to describe the human experience. 

This is a novel that, to me, asks two fundamental questions: Whose words matter? And almost more importantly, who gets to decide?

A moving, thought-provoking read.





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theothergrl's review against another edition

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

4.5

This is a wonderful story about womanhood. The main character feels incredibly real, not that she is a meticulously and deeply explored personality, but that she is a deeply explored woman. I think that's what made this story so heartbreaking and tearjerking, the way you find yourself in the story, how you feel deeply for every character as if they are your own dad or your own best friend. Esme leaves room for all of us within her, to experience what she does, to love and lose as she does. 

The other thing I love about this book is the way it's told through the words Esme collects. Just as she's starting to explore adulthood and rebel a little, she learns vulgar words, which I loved! As we explores life -sex, love, loss, independence -we do so through the words we learn along the way, that define and make sense of our experiences. The way the story unfolds as her dictionary grows is very poignant and effective, I cried so many times reading this! This book was such a wonderful experience.

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arayo's review against another edition

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informative inspiring sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0


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purplepenning's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.5


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elva_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

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chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-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? N/A

4.25

A delightful exploration of the joy of words, their power, their importance and what it reveals about society with words that are left out.
A coming of age story, full of love in an unusual found family amid the Rise of feminisim as the new dictionary; the Oxford dictionary is written and published. 
Our protagonist was very easy to relate to and the Book is full of characters that you grow found of, love and wish to avoid! The historical detail and weaving of fact with fiction is exquisite, you immerse yourself in this world. Despite huge historical significant events like the Suffragette movement and World War 1, it is the words and love of words that remain, in focus and at the heart of the story.

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tremayna's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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