Reviews tagging 'Death'

Bara Alice by Maggie O'Farrell, Ulla Danielsson

16 reviews

lenin_lover_69's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

2.5

I've never read a MOF book before but I know a lot of people love her so was really excited. This book left me pretty cold, I'm going to try one of her later ones. 

I enjoyed the writing a lot more

after John dies and the writing about grief felt soooo much more authentic than anyhing prior to that.

The main character Alice unfortunately was giving borderline manic pixie dream girl/not like other girls and I'm extremely turned off about female characters for who the primary part of their personality is that they are hot and damaged and therefore men constantly fall in love with them in spite of a pretty unpleasant and annoying personality. The writing around

her and John falling in love and having sex made me cringe sooo much esp when they go to the lake district. Why does this adult man have the inner diallogue of a 12 year old seeing a naked woman for the first time!!!!!

.

I enjoyed the storyline that related to Alice's family much more on the whole, especially her maternal grandmother. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Self harm, and Grief

Moderate: Stalking

raybudbury's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I loveeeee when authors do multiple different povs as an effect of what’s going on in the story. We got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in this bad boy. 

I’m jumping between 3.5-4 with this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Murder

saskia_ej's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Religious bigotry

veposve's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Medical content

aseel_reads's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

As some of the other reviews have said, this was such a powerful study of grief. The characters were so interesting and fleshed out, I could feel their pain and it was heartbreaking, argh, so good and sad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Death of parent

baruss666's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

katewhite77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

One of the most moving books I have read in sometime.

The action pivots round a particular day when Alice Reikes inadvertently witnesses something shocking on Waverley Station. The straw that broke the camel's back. 

The writing in this is effortlessly beautiful and the plot structure is quite unusual but this in large oart is why it is so moving. 

Themes that are explored include, inherited trauma, grief, parenting, relationships, religion and the secrets we keep. 

In a lesser writer's hands this could have been such a cumbersome book but in in  O'Farrell's hands it is anything but. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

frankieclc's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

213lb's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Religious bigotry

ambermariebee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Stalking, and Suicide attempt