Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County: A Novel by Claire Swinarski

17 reviews

beachbookbabe's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

kdailyreads's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Mental illness, Racism, Vomit, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ka_schulze's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

When you hear your hometown’s podunk airport mentioned, your ears perk up and you continue on.
This book wasn’t all feel good feelings like it was marketed. It was raw with grief, abandonment, and ptsd

caused by a holiday parade shooting

. 
I felt like the characters had good depth but also really liked the feeling you got; small town where everyone knows everyone and by default there’s grannies gossiping. 
Overall, this reminded me so much of life in northern Wisconsin that I get nostalgic about and miss but I’m thankful I moved away from the small town. Honestly, a great read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mass/school shootings and Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

acciodogs's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

2.5

For a short novel, there’s a lot of characters to keep track of…Between Esther’s family, the funeral ladies (and their daughters), and Cooper’s perspective and family, I had to stop way too many times to get my mind straight. 

I didn’t hate the story, but I didn’t love (and don’t remember the blurb mentioning) the religious theming or constant Catholicism references throughout. 

The story felt rushed, though I can’t say I’d love to spend more time with any of these characters.

So much talk about Esther being scammed…with little closure that felt satisfying. 

A lot of it felt preachy and privileged, but also like they were trying to be your cool aunt with how much drinking was in this story. If the sun was up, they were drinking beers. I did however appreciate the Hamm’s name drop. 

I loved the small town feel, the community aspect, the funeral ladies cook book and the lake setting. I just think this book would do with a better description, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if it had.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent

julierosem's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-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

Moderate: Addiction, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy

cesca_natalia's review against another edition

emotional inspiring lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Gaslighting

sar_tej's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would, considering the blurb is pretty far off from what the book is actually about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, and Car accident

Minor: Cancer

read_with_riley's review against another edition

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Pregnancy

bibliobaggins_'s review

dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

From the description of the book, I expected a fun story about meddling elderly ladies and their place in the community. I was super disappointed to find that the funeral ladies were hardly featured. 

The book started alright but got progressively worse, as I felt the book veer from the plot that was set up in the opening chapters. The characters mostly felt flat and one dimensional.

As an aside was excessive to the point of distraction ("booze backpack" for a Christmas market, morning beers at grandma's, drinking and driving casually mentioned many times as something "everyone does"). I kept waiting for it to be a plot point, but the closest it got to that was when one character was accused of excessive drinking when everyone around him seemed to be drinking the same amount. He also showed zero signs of having slowed down after making progress with his issues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Alcohol

emmas_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

This is such a good book if you like heartwarming stories about community and family. It’s also a little bit of an ode to Midwest culture. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Alcohol