Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis

22 reviews

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death

infusionofviolets's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Death, Misogyny, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

fseely's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Antisemitism, and Car accident

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

book_reader_lover's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I have not read a book so beautifully written in a long time.  Davis wrote a heartfelt book. Her writing is engrossing, effective and heartfelt in The Echo of Old Books.

Ashlyn can feel the Echo of Old Books when she holds them.  It's a gift she discovered at age 12.   She owns the bookstore An Unlikely Story.  One day she gets a call from her friend, Kevin, who has just gotten a box of books in.  Ashlyn picks one of the books up and gets nothing, until she opens the book.  There's no author, copyright, or publisher in the book.  She's never heard of the book, but something draws her to it.  Soon, another book appears with the same thing just a different title.  Ashlyn is soon on the hunt to figure out who wrote them and what happened in their lives.  

Part mystery, part love story, but a whole lot of descriptive beautiful writing.  There are flawed characters with great character development.  I have never read Barbara Davis before, but know I want to read all her books, especially if they are all beautiful and well written, as The Echo of Old Books is.  I highly recommend this book!

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#carlislepubliclibrary #lonokecountylibrarysystem #barbaradavis #theechoofoldbooks #readaway2024

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War

shaybunchanumbers's review

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I definitely enjoyed The Echos of Old Books more than I thought I would. The well placed reveals of tragedies and other characters’ backstories were so well done and left me on my seat. I know I audibly gasped at Helene’s heritage reveal. I closed the book with a smile on my face and am excited to watch my friends’ reactions reading it, too.
The book describes itself as a mystery genre but the only mystery that really existed in it were the real names of Hemi and Belle (one of whom didn’t last very long) and how such a misunderstanding occurred in the first place. But, even that, wasn’t really a mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

ams5x9's review

hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Antisemitism

Minor: Forced institutionalization

jennswan's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Genocide, Infidelity, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Classism

tiiiger35's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book had so much more depth to it than I expected. The dual timelines were interwoven so beautifully giving the story a consistent fluidity. As a highly sensitive person, I was drawn to Ashlynn’s gift as a book empath. What she considered a curse, became the very thing to change her life for the better. 

This story is about more than romance, it deals with grief, heartbreak, remorse & survival. It also has some darker undertones surrounding; suicide, anti-semitism & the factions of Nazi supporters building in America during WW2. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the need to highlight so many quotes. I felt as if the words had been plucked from my own mind at times. 

This is definitely a new favourite of mines that I’ll be recommending to my friends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abandonment, and War

chacharlotte's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

 I was gonna give this 5 stars at first, but the last part really lets this book down in my opinion.

It’s too much of a Hallmark happy end for what started out with beautifully written, complicated but compelling characters. I also didn’t like how Ashlyn‘s story was suddenly cast aside in favor of present day Marian‘s viewpoint.

What also bothers me are Ashlyn‘s magic powers, that seem like an afterthought/just thrown in there to give Ashlyn motivation to pursue the story of the two lovers. I think there could’ve been a way to tell this story without the magic - it doesn’t really add much, and it doesn’t really fit the vibe of the rest of the book. If you’re gonna add magic (which I’m not opposed to), I would think it would have more impact on the story and/or the characters. It just seemed kind of lazy?

The “plot twist” was pretty obvious as well, and I don’t think we needed all those chapters with Marian to reveal it. I think this would have been a much better book if Ashlyn had been the one to figure out the misunderstanding and Marian/Hemi’s reunion had been left to the imagination/not happened on page/not happened at all even.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Antisemitism

Minor: Child death, Mental illness, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

sdt0087's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War