Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Die Insel der Unschuldigen by Jess Kidd

27 reviews

jeanbpdx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious 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

5.0

I loved this book. Despite the dark themes, there’s a lot of sweetness here and redemption for at least one character. Beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug abuse and Sexual violence

lauramcc7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

billyjepma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.0

There’s a lot to like here—striking prose, sharp characterizations, vibes so potent you can feel them sticking on your skin—but it ultimately didn’t work for me as much as I wanted. It’s a very cruel book, for one, with more violence than I expected (that’s on me for going into this without knowing anything about it), which I can usually stomach without a problem. But the cruelty didn’t have the teeth it needed to leave a mark—it’s all blunt and brutal and lacks the intentionality I look for. What’s the violence saying? How does it frame or reframe the themes and characters? I kept looking for a moment to make everything click into place, but I never found it. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but for whatever reason, it never materialized for me. 

The dual storylines have potential, and the structure of the chapters does an admirable job of bouncing between the two timelines. Some moments had me by the throat and used the back-and-forth pacing to keep me reading longer than planned. Those moments are the exception, though, as I usually gravitated toward the 1989 story, where Kidd’s characterizations are the strongest, and the narrative has the most momentum and stakes. I kept waiting for the two stories to converge, but they didn’t, at least not in a way that satisfied me. They share themes, sure, but when the themes are this broad and, honestly, kind of basic, it left me cold. There’s enough good here that I can’t go lower than a three-star rating, but suffice it to say, this one wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Violence, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, and Cannibalism

denisedup's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

ruthjenkins's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, and Death of parent

alexijai98's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

More than anything, The Night Ship is just okay. The concept is interesting, and executed fairly well. Kidd handles the subject matter with grace, and having children as the protagonists brings an interesting perspective to the book. Overall an okay read, but I can’t find myself fervently recommending this to anyone, or rereading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

localpeachthief's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

nyne's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault

rebeccafm's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

estherrosedq's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

This book was much, much darker than I expected, even with the blurb being somewhat morbid. It was at times hard to read because of the themes. I did like how the two stories were tied together, although the link was somewhat tenuous. I think my favorite part of this book was how it incorporated childrens’ imaginations into the storyline and really built the characters around their imaginations in a way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Murder