Reviews tagging 'Death'

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

5 reviews

mmccombs's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A stunning novel! I really loved everything about this, the characters were well-crafted, the setting adding so much to the propulsive plot, and beautifully layered themes. This almost felt like reading a classic tragedy, misunderstandings and fate and family ties clashing into an ending you can see coming, but can never prepare for. It’s a pretty timeless, universal story about privilege and religion and hatred, and the writing is just beautiful to read (if sometimes a little over the top). I will say I felt a bit overwhelmed by the amount of gruesome animal deaths throughout the book, I do think they made sense for the story being told, but if you feel sensitive to that (among other content warnings I’ll include in my review), you might want to skip this one. 
This was kind of unexpected because I read it on a whim without knowing anything about it, but I think this could become a favorite of all time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Violence, Child death, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Death

Moderate: Infidelity and Rape

melliedm's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Excrement, Bullying, Child death, Grief, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Racial slurs, Gore, Medical content, Misogyny, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Classism

patchworkculture's review

dark emotional sad medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Animal death, and Death

stephanieswilley's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Child death, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal death, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, and Suicide attempt

lostcupofstars's review against another edition

2.5

“There is the silence that lingers and the silence that devours”

I’ve gone down the middle with rating this for these reasons:

-text that was dense and difficult to get into

-unlikeable characters

-depressing and heavy content with no silver linings

I thought this had some really solid storylines and they all tied in well together at the end. There were some really well written parts, and the plot was interesting to follow. 

I struggled with the text; there were a lot of uncommon words I came across that at first I would look up, but after a few pages I realised it was disturbing the flow of reading and also taking twice as long to get through a chapter. Once I stopped looking up words it was easier to get into the story. 

Ultimately, this was a depressing and heavy read and I was disappointed that there weren’t many references to ghosts at all. I don’t think I really liked any of the characters? Apart from Rookmin.

Also a lot of cw to be wary of: ableism, colourism, racism, death (including graphic violence towards people and animals) domestic abuse, sexism, sexual assault and murder amongst any others I may have forgotten. 

Not sure if I’d recommend it, simply because I came away feeling very heavy and that’s not what I like or want from my reads. If you like a challenging read that tackles some of the issues I’ve listed above then this might be the read for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Death, Child death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Ableism, Racism, and Sexism