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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
Graphic: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Murder
thepurplepixel'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? Yes
4.5
Kadish weaves a story across centuries, following modern day professor Helen Watt’s and grad student Aaron Levy’s discovery of a collection of letters from the 17th century. The significance of the letters becomes apparent as they were written by a female scribe, a challenge to what the modern age understands of that earlier time period and culture. The more letters are read and translated, the more Helen and Aaron are given insight into the unique character of Ester. Kadish then switches to narrating the time of Ester’s dynamic life, describing her philosophical development during a volatile time in history, especially for a young Jewish woman.
I love how Kadish fleshes out the narrative for each protagonist and gives each a solid resolution. Even secondary characters, like Rivka and Mary, are given their due place. I also love the reflective themes of the novel. Kadish educated me on many things, including the 17th century, philosophy, and some components of Jewish culture and custom. I love that Kadish has her characters ask real questions, though I may disagree with how they’re answered. Indeed, I don’t know that Ester’s final philosophical views are as substantial as Kadish would suggest, given the correspondence and friendship Ester kept in the later part of the book. But the discussion is there, and for that I appreciate this book.
A few months ago I read The Invisible Life of Addie Larue. While The Weight of Ink lacks the fantasy elements in Schwab’s novel and does not have as strong of an indulgently romantic overtone, both examine a woman’s psychological and artistic birth and development in her quest for true independence. Readers of one would definitely appreciate the other.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Outing, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
tamara_joy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Confinement, Infidelity, Racism, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
jlye's review
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and War
rubl_b's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Minor: Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Antisemitism, and Death of parent
atamano's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
mcbuckelew's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Minor: Homophobia and Antisemitism
wogslandwriter's review
- 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
The paths of our three main characters: Helen, Aaron, and Esther are interwoven and unique with parallels between them all and a satisfying conclusion for each of them. Despite being fictional, I also learned a lot from the historical surroundings of the book and I look forward to doing more research on the history of the Jewish diaspora in the 17th century.
This book will change your life and you should definitely read it as soon as you can. I rented the audiobook for free from my library and it was fantastic.
Graphic: Genocide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Chronic illness, Misogyny, Rape, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, and Pregnancy
The book covers explicit descriptions of torture endured at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. It also covers the expansion of Jewish people in London in the 1660's, as such there is some explicit antisemitism. There is also explicit descriptions of the house fire that killed Esther's parents. There is minor alcohol drinking by most characters at one point or another.jenniferduann's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Antisemitism
Moderate: Violence
foreverinastory'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? Yes
4.5
Rep: Elderly disabled female MC, American Jewish male PhD student MC, Refugee Jewish female MC, blind rabbi side character, gay jewish male side character, various other Jewish side characters, including Israeli side characters.
CWs: Antisemitism, chronic illness, death, death of parents, homophobia and forced exile of gay side character, forced conversion to Christianity on threat of death, misogyny, public outing of gay character, religious bigotry, sexism, sexual content, murder of side character, terminal illness, violence, xenophobia, ableism, past mentions of torture, pregnancy of side character.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Outing
Moderate: Ableism, Torture, Murder, and Pregnancy