Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks

11 reviews

minniepauline's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

This is a fascinating exploration of how fear changes people and societies. It’s prescient, too. Written in 2001, it’s an apt book for our own times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

oliviakateamerica's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Violence

upgirlcd's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad 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? Yes

4.75

This book was so well written! I was transported back to 1666! And I love Anna as the narrator. The ending was very unusual.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Death and Violence

The content warnings do fit the book's main topic, which is a 17th century village dealing with plague

beajeffie's review against another edition

dark 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Murder

whimsical_adelaide's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Wow. Just... wow. This was a great book and I'm so glad I read it, but it was BRUTAL! I was not surprised to learn that the author is a journalist who has spent time reporting in war-torn countries. I had to make sure to have uplifting things happening outside my reading so it didn't put me in a depressed mood. There were a lot of gruesome descriptions of violence and death.

Year of Wonders is about so much more than battling the sickness of the plague in a small village that quarantined to keep it from spreading outside its walls. It's about how it affected the people psychologically, how it caused them to turn on each other, and also brought moments of wonder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

gail_dancer's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

The beautiful prose of this timepieced novel caressed me as a welcome change from other recent modern novels I’d read. Anna was a complex and likeable lead character whose personal growth spanned large from start to finish. Some unexpected and rash circumstances near the end of the book disappointed me, but all in all  an enjoyable interesting read. The situation of how the village experienced and dealt with the Plague was eerily familiar post-Covid-19. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

s_mivsek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Excrement, and Murder

rld1727's review against another edition

2.75

This book was a weird ride. I didn’t love it, but I stuck around because I had read reviews of how the plot goes kind of haywire later on in the book - it does, indeed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

kia_y_k's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

mrremi's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

This isn't my normal type of book, so if I liked historical fiction more maybe my rating would be higher.  I kind of just pushed through in the beginning because I'm reading for a reading challenge and I refused to give up.  But it wasn't as interesting and action packed as my usual fantasy books.  However, it did grow on me more and my goodness so many things happened over the course of the year.  Anna is a very strong woman but the most interesting part of her story to me was what happened in the epilogue honestly.  But I guess that it took her growth within this year to allow her to get to that different side of her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail