Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Exiles

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

14 reviews

jaithur's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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estellegodard's review against another edition

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hopeful sad fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this time period and setting very much. I had never read a book that dealt with this subject matter and found it very interesting. I was unhappy with some of the choices made, namely killing off evangeline and the romance between dunn and hazel. I also thought mathinna’s passages were a little bit underdeveloped, especially since we don’t get any real closure for her. I did think she was an important character to add though, and it added texture to the austrlian colonial experience. overall, it was a pleasant and easy historical-fiction book.

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hazzardfreak02's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

4.75

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ruffian23's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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nimeneth's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I'm the minority here but nothing really... Happens. There's a lot of misery, but it's all told, not shown. The writing style is very much "this happened then this happened then this happened" and while there is dialogue and some small bits of introspection, everything felt a bit flat. The "twists" were all fairly predictable. I also had a bit of a problem with each of the endings for the women. Hazel and Ruby's endings were too neat and tidy, Evangeline's was too drawn out, and Mathinna didn't really get one. I'm left feeling unsatisfied with all of them.

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.5

Good on me for finishing our test run book club book! But waiting for everyone else to be done and for my friend to return from abroad is torture. I feel the need to discuss this book in detail for hours with a side of charcuterie ASAP.

From the bottom of my heart, I love the overall message of this novel to pass kindness forward. A simple act of kindness can change someone's life entirely and there is so much beauty in that. Evangeline wasn't treated kindly (without underlying bad intentions) for a second when she was working as a governess yet she maintained her character and was able to aid both Olive and Hazel. They in turn passed that kindness forward and impacted the lives of others. Kindness is vital to the human condition, but one of my favorite moments in the story was someone refusing a kind offer.

When Hazel reunited with Mathinna she extended a hand once more and offered to shelter her in Dr. Dunne's home, but Mathinna refused. Hazel showed her so much kindness in the past but no matter what if Mathinna had accepted she still would’ve been in her care and indebted to a white woman. I appreciate Christina Baker Kline truly allowing her to be free after so many years of being at the whims of white people.

Hazel became a quick favorite of mine once she was introduced. There are so many things about her character to love, but one facet of her backstory has been stuck in my brain. I love how the thing she stole, which resulted in her imprisonment and transportation, was literally a silver spoon. She was a child, shunned by her own mother, and the straw she was forced to grasp at was the exact concept of a comfortable and struggle-free life. She could've been happy, even in poverty, if her mother was loving, but instead, she got a woman who threw her into the streets both literally and metaphorically forcing her to vy for a silver spoon which could never be hers anyway.

Dr. Dunne really crept up on me as a character and I ended up loving him. Originally I was wary of him. Who could blame me? The poor protagonists were betrayed and wronged by so many people in their lives I was instinctually distrustful of the conveniently kind doctor, but I was pleasantly surprised to see myself be wrong. I LOVE that man!!!

To be so real, for a minute there I thought he was going to fall for Evangeline, BUT THEN SHE FUCKING DIED??? I NEED TO DISCUSS THAT TWIST WITH MY FELLOW BOOK CLUB MEMBERS BUT I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE END OF THE MONTH.

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