Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Ga als een rivier by Shelley Read

14 reviews

kitty03's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Grief, Alcoholism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, and Racial slurs

Minor: War, Sexism, and Alcoholism

sarahweyand'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? It's complicated

4.0

Every time I finish a book, my husband will always ask what it was about. This is one of the few books where my answer is "How much time do you have?"; it's near impossible to give an easy synopsis of what I read here, but I do know that I enjoyed it.

This was a book about many things: family, love, loss, motherhood, perseverance, survival. It made me think about a lot of big questions without posing them directly or giving me an answer. The prose was wonderful to listen to (I enjoyed the audiobook), and the atmosphere felt like a dappled summer day, which is a nice change given that it's snowing outside.

Pacing here was medium-slow, especially because it was hard to tell where the plot was going at times. But I was always interested in listening and I felt like I really cared about our protagonist. I also really, really liked where this book ended. Perfect choice.

I'd definitely pick up something else by Shelley Read and will look out for future releases of hers! Give this one a read if you like historical fiction and heavy slice-of-life, introspective novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Murder

mdavis26's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Animal death, Miscarriage, Racism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Murder, War, Cultural appropriation, Car accident, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Racial slurs, and Pregnancy

miranda226's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

I wanted to like this book and had the plot been different I would have greatly enjoyed the style of writing. But I can’t excuse using the brutal murder of a Native man as a plot device to help the naive white woman main character grow, which honestly she doesn’t even have that much character growth afterward. I understand that this prejudice, racism and murder matched the time period - my problem with the novel is that it doesn’t feel like it was _this_ author’s story to tell.

Zelda is one of the only redeeming characters, and I would have been much more interested in hearing her story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent

reading_ladies_blog's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Abandonment, Bullying, Alcoholism, Grief, Misogyny, and Torture

alixcallender's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I have great affection for Victoria, and I loved the slow, reflective, mournful pacing. But I do take issue with a few things: 

- Far to many peach metaphors. We get it. 
- Where is Wilson Moon’s actual personality? 
- The near-end was overly fluffy and convenient. (Without giving anything away, I will just say that I am not convinced that Victoria could have imagined *that outcome* with such accuracy, nor do I believe that two people can glean such perfect and correct meaning from a pile of rocks.)

It was very much like Where the Crawdad’s Sing, so if you liked that story you’ll probably like this one too. It’s a poolside read. I read it quickly, and enjoyed it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Abandonment, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, Violence, Colonisation, Miscarriage, War, Sexism, and Alcohol

Minor: Car accident, Body shaming, Infertility, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

jermangirl'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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Drug use and Drug abuse

chansicotte's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Racism, Death, and Racial slurs

luelle_'s review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Animal death, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Grief, and Racial slurs

Minor: Miscarriage and Child death

jenissaaa's review against another edition

Something just didn’t sit right with me about

killing off an indigenous character just to give trauma to a white woman to further the plot, especially when you don’t even get to spend enough time to get to know him as a character before he’s murdered

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Murder, Grief, Pregnancy, and Racism