Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

14 reviews

purplepenning's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, War, and Classism

Moderate: Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Cursing, and Forced institutionalization

elva_'s review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Child abuse

chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

A delightful exploration of the joy of words, their power, their importance and what it reveals about society with words that are left out.
A coming of age story, full of love in an unusual found family amid the Rise of feminisim as the new dictionary; the Oxford dictionary is written and published. 
Our protagonist was very easy to relate to and the Book is full of characters that you grow found of, love and wish to avoid! The historical detail and weaving of fact with fiction is exquisite, you immerse yourself in this world. Despite huge historical significant events like the Suffragette movement and World War 1, it is the words and love of words that remain, in focus and at the heart of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Mental illness

Moderate: Child abuse, War, Sexism, Death, and Pregnancy

tremayna's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Cursing, Death, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Abortion, and Misogyny

bookdragon1485's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

I was excited to read this book for my book club……unfortunately this book was just not my cup of tea. While some small parts were interesting, a majority of the book was slow & predictable with flowery words. I can see the potential & the core of the story is beautiful but sadly this book overall disappointed me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Grief, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death, and War

lenchen25's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Abortion, War, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage

yush's review against another edition

emotional slow-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? No

4.5

I loved this book! I enjoyed the integration of history and  Etymology throughout the novel. The  characters were fully fledged and the main character had a strong voice. I enjoyed seeing her growth and life come to life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child abuse, and War

joshuamartinsen's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

This book is PERFECT. It does exactly what it says in the blurb, but so much more. The author is SO intentional about which words are used and when- carefully choosing which details of the protagonists life to gloss over and which to explore in painstaking detail based on their significance to her at each point in her life. The use of time skips was so thoughtful, and i found they always fast-tracked me to exactly where I wanted to be. Can’t recommend this book enough, and the attention to detail and care that the author put into it is obvious in every word, paragraph, page, and chapter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Classism, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Blood, Child abuse, and Police brutality

pammicmac's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Abortion

graceevalyn's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved this book!! I really enjoy books that deal with big social issues by focusing on very intimate aspects of a single person's life, and by doing that are able to say something clearly about the social issue clearly without preaching. This book did that. It's so thoroughly researched and meticulously put together; the historical detail included about the making of the dictionary is fascinating. The main character and many of the supporting characters are masterfully drawn, flawed, yet sympathetic characters. It's beautifully written and reflects on the role of women (or lack thereof) in the development of language, as well as more generally the power of words and sometimes their inability to say what we want to say. It's also astonishing to read a book that covers a scope of so many years and yet is paced so well and keeps my interest/remains consistent in tone and ideas the whole time while growing along with the character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, War, Cursing, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion