Reviews tagging 'Child death'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

59 reviews

aniloracccc's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Mass/school shootings, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

quinn24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

Lionel Shriver can write so well I just wish her bigoted beliefs weren’t consistently clawing their way onto the page completely unnecessarily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Genocide, Vomit, and Classism

kimh147's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Child abuse

benzetsu's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Mass/school shootings

Moderate: Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual content

thewhaanga's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

A great read that questions a parents love for their offspring.

annie_brewer's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Read via audiobook (Orion Publishing Group Limited)

A superb book. The writing is impeccable, non superfluous but provides astounding imagery. Each character has so much dimension and their perfect regularity lends to faceted motivations.

Delivered through letters, Eva's tone alludes to indifference and banality - a reactionary position of self defense, a methodic distancing from the atrocities of her son, or exhaustion? Her crude apology for her own loss at a funeral of a victim exposes her grief and helplessness, yet possibly hints at self-absorbtion and innate narcissism. 

Is Eva an unreliable narrator? Does Eva also have psychopathic tendancies? Was Eva oppressively cynical? Was Eva suffering from post-partum depression, impacting her bonding with Kevin?

The nuances between Kevin and Eva are expertly crafted, rendering the relationship consistantly teetering between obliteration and mutual respect with each interaction. The suprising accountability they hold each other to, valuing authenticity over compassion, stunts their relationships with others who can never reciprocate the grittiness and pervasion.

A novel that will forever make me question nature vs nurture.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - Unspecified but implied.

tiffany_stevenson's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Bit of a hard read - took me a long time to get into it but made me extremely reflective on my own desire to have children. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Mass/school shootings

fernash's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Medical trauma

aliengirlreads's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Pregnancy

kira_sha2024's review against another edition

dark medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Mass/school shootings