Reviews tagging 'Death'

Τρομπέτα by Jackie Kay

9 reviews

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• 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

Brilliant character study but the writing held me at a distance emotionally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Dysphoria, and Classism

jem_carstairs's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Medical content

Minor: Body shaming

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.75

 The trumpet player at the heart of Trumpet is Joss Moody, a Black jazz musician. The novel opens with his wife Millie grieving his death. And what a devastating, poignant bittersweet chapter that was. I don’t think I’ve read grief written better or more lovingly, nor felt it more viscerally. Unfortunately Millie is not able to grieve in peace because Joss’s death has revealed a secret that shocked many (but not Millie who has long known about it ) and a tabloid journalist is determined to write a tell-all expose. Joss and Millie’s son Colman, shocked by the revelation and upset by its nature, is assisting her. I love that we heard from multiple voices during the novel. Each revealed more about Joss as a person and traversed different attitudes to his secret, attitudes that revealed far more about them than they did about Joss. The characterisation was excellent. Both Colman’s story arc and the final chapter, a letter written by Joss, were satisfying. This is a story about the love between a man and his wife, and between father and son. It’s the story of a man who chose to live life his authentically, despite some costs. Its exploration of issues surrounding tabloid journalism and the public’s obsession with the private lives of public figures was thought provoking and timely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Racism

cursed_reader's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, and Transphobia

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Racism

noahsingh's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Racism, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing

Moderate: Body shaming, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Dementia, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

rcsreads's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

It's clear that if they were real people several of the characters in this book would read the Daily Mail. Some sections contain a lot of transphobic language and while the underlying story of Joss' love and marriage is full of love and acceptance the background to it comes with a trigger warning. 

The books begins with the death of famous jazz trumpeter Joss Moody and the discovery by everyone but his wife that Joss has boobies wrapped up under his suit. The story is told from various perspectives, his wife Millie, his son Coleman, various friends and an extremely annoying and unpleasant journalist. 

I liked Kay's writing style but if I put the book down between chapters I could just leave it for days. There was no momentum or need to keep going. It was at points almost like a set of short stories on a theme rather than a cohesive novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, and Death of parent

rrb101's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I personally wouldn't have chosen to read this book if I didn't have to for uni. But in a way, I'm glad I did. I did enjoy the book. I think it was really well written. Certain aspects made me mad (this was intentional) and could be quite triggering for some, but I found the overall story quite beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Transphobia, Grief, and Outing

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia

sorcha's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Deadnaming, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

tina94's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Grief