Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

4 reviews

blueroo's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, and Transphobia

Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Dementia, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

c_dmckinney's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Ultimately, I don't think I'm the right audience for this book. I'm oversaturated and exhausted by broken men doing profoundly selfish things that hurt their wives with no real consequences. I understand he was stuck in a cycle of immense grief for 20 years after tremendous loss, but Harold taking off on his journey without so much as telling his wife put me off the entire thing.

The writing is beautiful in a haunting and meandering way. The exploration of grief is done quite well. I loved the way the shoes were used as an overarching metaphor and I really liked the concept of an act of faith not being explicitly specifically religious in nature. But I felt so much more for Maureen than Harold the entire time. 

My sympathy for what Harold did to his wife without thought or consideration or apology made every additional choice Harold made all that much more frustrating. At every turn he refused most help, refused to acknowledge his behavior meaning anything outside of keeping Queenie alive, refused to do anything to make the journey safer or quicker. While I fully understand that grief is often isolating and illogical, Harold was so frustratingly selfish and unintentionally cruel to the person best equipped to understand his pain and it makes it hard for me to care that his ending is technically the happiest outcome for him.

Some people are drawn to this sort of protagonist but I deeply resent them because they are so common in my real life. So my rating is heavily biased and mostly about how much I don't like reading stories about people like Harold. It shouldn't necessarily be used to justify someone not reading it though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Alcohol

koplomps's review

hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Dementia, and Death of parent

ruthmoog's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

We join Harold on a walk where he reflects on his life and relationships, learns about himself, his love for his wife and son, regret in his past. He meets people along the way who believe in him conpassioantely and open up about their lives.
There's a twist, and I felt good for Harold at the end of the journey, although the end of the story is predictable and a little underwhelming. The neighbour, Rex, was my favourite character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction

Detailed descriptions of food. Normalisation of pesticides.