Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Return to Hiroshima by Bob Van Laerhoven

1 review

aravenclawlibraryx's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

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tw: mentions of unsafe abortions, infant death, rape, graphic description of infant death, excrement, assault against women, use of word retarded

This was quite an interesting book. When I was first asked to read this book, I thought it was going to be more about the crime lords in Japan. What I got was so much more. It’s about twisted family dynamics, mental health, toxic relationships and just how far some would go to get justice. There were layers and layers to this book that I don’t think I caught the first time around. I’ll have to read this book again to really catch everything that this book had to offer. 

One very prominent feature in this book is mental illness. Almost every character in the book, and believe me there was a lot, had some sort of mental illness. Some of them were more severe than others. It really made me feel quite sad for a lot of the characters. This book is a prime example of why mental health help needs to be readily available for everyone. 

This book also talked a lot about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagaski. In case you didn’t know what these bombings are, they essentially ended World War II on the Pacific theatre side. They were two huge atomic bombs that were dropped on two separate cities in Japan by the Allied powers. It caused massive amounts of casualties and damage. This book talks about the lasting effects of what those nuclear bombs caused, often physical deformities. It was pretty heart wrenching to read at times. 

Like I mentioned above, I enjoyed this book. But it was a bit tricky to get into. I actually had to start over because I just couldn’t grasp what was happening. Once I did that, things made a lot more sense. The author writes beautifully. It was prosey but not quite. It was like the author put a different spin on it. One thing that really helped me out is the author put information of whose chapter it was, who was in the scene and the date. That helped quite a bit and I wish other authors would do this. 

Before I wrap this review up, there are some things I need to point out. This book, like I mentioned, isn’t easy to read. Not only because it’s an adult fiction book but because of some of what is mentioned in the book. There is a fair amount of sexual activities in this book. There is a rape storyline and the rape is graphically described. There will be a trigger warning list at the top of the review, like always, but I just wanted to put in a paragraph about it. 

Overall, while I struggled at the beginning of this book, I found I really enjoyed this book. I wouldn’t mind rereading it so I can catch everything the second time. I wrote in my notes that this book reminded me of a puzzle. There were a lot of pieces that you knew belonged but you just couldn’t figure out where they went until the end. I highly recommend this book but I bring that recommendation with an age limit. I think someone my age (I’m 27 years old) and a little older would enjoy this book more than someone that is younger. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Rape, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Incest

This book is not for people under the age of 18 years old. It is a very dark and haunting book.