Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

85 reviews

katharine2k's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad fast-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

The love I had for this story was completely unexpected. It will live in my heart for a long time because of the beautiful writing and the meaning of words
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

acasiamae's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hungary_mommy's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful informative reflective 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? No

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“You are not the arbiter of knowledge, sir. You are its librarian… It is not for you to judge the importance of these words, simply to allow others to do so.”

I had never really given much thought to how the dictionary was written and the proof that was needed for a word to be included. This book is fictional but tells the real process of writing the Oxford English Dictionary, the amount of people involved and how many years it took to complete. The main character of Esme was fictional but she grows up with her father working on the words of the dictionary and sees how certain words are left out. Words that are used by people who are not well educated white men. So she starts to collect other words, those of the poor, uneducated and disenfranchised.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sari_lyr's review

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

madizig21's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I am beside my self over the ending of this book. Being in school was the only thing that prevented my tears. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hematthews's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ashlynmae311's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-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

4.5

This book helped me understand my own experience as a woman so much more deeply. She puts words to my own struggles, sorrows, and joys in a truly unique and inspired way.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

The premise of the book is what initially drew my attention and captured my interest. As someone who was once a curious, inquisitive girl with a love of books and a large vocabulary, I fell in love with Esme and her work. (I’m now an adult with the same love of books and a hunger for information.) That being said, the book loses steam about halfway through, which is why it took me a while to finish it. Nothing was happening, narratively or emotionally, with the characters, so I lost interest. The final third of the novel truly drags, and the author seems to have lost steam because
she pretty much kills everyone off and makes a sixty year time jump with little context
. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not a strongly written one either. I would suggest that you only read as far as page 247 (the chapter titled December 1912). It drops off after that.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

zombiezami's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Truly beautiful and informative. Knocking off .25 stars because there were some threads of the narrative that felt a bit tacked on, from which I would have appreciated greater continuity. For example, I kept forgetting about
the protagonist's daughter because we would only be reminded of her every few chapters.
By contrast, in The Book Eaters, a book that felt very similar to this one thematically, you never forgot
that the protagonist had a daughter who was taken away from her.
It was a big, emotional plot point.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings