gondorgirl's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Excrement, Rape, Vomit, Animal death, Classism, Colonisation, Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Terminal illness
peggyd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Having said that, it's a Lauren Groff book, so it's beautifully written. Really just stunning prose from start to finish. I smelled the often vile smells, I could feel the bugs, fleas, and lice crawling on me and setting up shop in my clothes. I could see the beauty of nature: the waterfalls, the budding trees, the forest canopy, the birds diving and telling their stories. It's an immersive story.
Lamentations (AKA Zed) is on the run. Her mistress's vile new husband (a priest, natch) dragged them across the Atlantic to the new world and a fort where everyone is starving. After the death of her charge, the child Bess, Zed sees something vile, grabs up what little she can, steals her mistress's heavy cloak and gloves and RUNS. This is a story of survival; it's also a coming of age story for Zed who starts with a deep faith in God that gradually shifts as she looks at this new world with more experienced eyes. Each encounter, each struggle wears her down while also opening her up to a deeper understanding of herself, her past (spoiler: also bleak), and, ultimately, the brutality of the natural world, even as she grasps that colonization will only blight out its beauty and possibility.
We are just with her (and a few fearsome men), running with her, wondering where it could possibly end. For me, it ended how I expected--bleak--but the beauty of getting there and the beauty of the final lines, well, whew, they blew me away. Truly, I think Lauren Groff is a genius to make me love a book as relentless as this one.
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Excrement
whitjobo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse and Cannibalism
Moderate: Vomit, Child death, and Murder
flowchelle's review
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Terminal illness, Vomit, Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Excrement
elzbethmrgn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Animal death, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Cannibalism, Child death, and Murder
theabee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence, Torture, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Colonisation
fiberreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail
hmatt's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
I am a person who likes books that don't have a whole lot of plot, so I was fine with that aspect - but beware if you're not. There are some introspections the girl had that feel a bit too on-the-nose for me (i.e. a bit too "woke", lol), but otherwise I found this a fun, short, atmospheric read.
Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Child abuse, Confinement, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Death, Gore, Ableism, Terminal illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Vomit
Moderate: Cannibalism
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Death of parent
elficus's review
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Ableism, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Murder, Rape, Vomit, and Excrement
ellbutler's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Cannibalism, Vomit, and Excrement