Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Hiroshima by John Hersey

4 reviews

neptunereign's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, War, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

paigesbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

While groundbreaking at the time, this book nowadays is not one I would recommend to read about Hiroshima. The stories of the 6 survivors are told in a way that was completely insipid, with no emotion attached. Only the first 12-ish hours post-attack were written about, and then suddenly their stories shifted to weeks later, not mentioning the difficulty in the days after of the bombing. I believe there are significantly better stories from survivors that showcase the true horrors and struggles. The book also read as a propaganda piece in order to clear the guilty conscious of Americans. The final chapter mentioned how Japanese people were proud to die for their emperor, and how they were more focused on the honor of the emperor speaking over the radio instead of the bomb that destroyed over 60% of their city.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Grief and Vomit

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Chronic illness

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Vomit, and War

ashlightgrayson's review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

John Hersey did an amazing job converting the testimonies of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II into an easily digestible narrative. His reporting is informative and empathetic putting the human experience at the forefront of the historical events of the era (which were happening in real time at the time this was written). Of course due to the nature of the events, this was largely depressing, but in many ways hopeful by the end. I'm going to see if I can find more books with this reporting style because it was very engrossing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Death of parent, War, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Genocide, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Excrement