Reviews tagging 'War'

Ga als een rivier by Shelley Read

33 reviews

victor_constantine's review against another edition

medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

It felt like parts of the stories dragged on and other parts were too quickly brushed aside. I wish the author had spent a little more time building up characters towards the beginning, and the ending seemed very abrupt. It feels like the author was just trying to set it up for a sequel, but it was deeply unsatisfying. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Racism

Moderate: Hate crime, Miscarriage, and War

alyssatuininga's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

beccajreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.0

This was tough to read at times, but beautiful too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Torture, and War

Minor: Vomit, Medical trauma, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sophiestasyna's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and War

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

I have about 4K words of thoughts about this that are more appropriate for elsewhere, but I am absolutely baffled that other reviews didn't mention the fact that this book uses violence against a Native person to prompt personal growth from a white woman. Wil shows up, gets called slurs, has no characterization,

gets Tori pregnant, is vaguely magical, and then dies in less than 100 pages. He only exists to be pined for as like an ethereal being. He is written as essentially something other than human who also provided a baby.

It made me REALLY uncomfortable. Also, I felt like the end was a whole different story that got tacked on. I just cannot believe Read talked to Native folks before writing this book, as she states in her acknowledgements. Because I really feel like she just went and checked off all the tropes of writing about Native people in the kind of "magical Negro" trope. The character is there to further the story, but they're not really a full person. I'm just really mad about this. First time I've been burned by a blind date with a book. Sigh. The action kind of trickles out too. 
*bought at Analogue Books & Records in Pueblo, CO

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

mthereader's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: War

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

2.75

I can appreciate that Go as a River is a beautifully descriptive, thematically complex book that a lot of people will really enjoy, but despite seeing this logically, I didn't particularly like it. The first half of the story was tediously slow - I enjoyed the second half a lot more, but they felt like different books to me. I also found that a lot of nuance, depth, and sympathy was given to characters like Victoria's father and brother, while more interesting characters like Wil and Ruby-Alice were deprived of agency and left quite one-dimensional. Their portrayals didn't match with what Victoria claimed to feel about them. And, honestly, I just didn't care about or connect with Victoria that much even though she was objectively going through many difficult things. Pretty much every other character seemed to have a more interesting perspective on what was going on.

The descriptions of the book's setting and the changing time periods were the highlights of this story for me, and I did feel emotional in places purely because of the amounts of suffering various characters went through. However, everything wrapped up so neatly and relied on so many improbable coincidences that it was just not a book that really worked for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Domestic abuse, and War

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Sexual violence

plasticpansy's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and War

katharina90's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

A slow, sad, reflective book with interesting themes, some of which I wish had been explored more (or differently). Some elements of the story felt rushed or underdeveloped. At times it also just dragged.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Miscarriage, Colonisation, and War

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

0.5

this was so so disappointing. the characters are incredibly one dimensional and stereotypical, the plot is incredibly unbelievable and boring, and the author used the singular Indigenous American character is barely featured and simply used to further the main characters story and then thrown away. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism