Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

13 reviews

tashy49's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

clarezillaa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Violence, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent

sunnyinka's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Grief, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Vomit, and Cultural appropriation

emjane89's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

An honest look at racism in contemporary Australia. Interesting and complex characters. Sri Lankan history and culture. A devastating but worthwhile read. The plot became a little convoluted in the end which took away from the overall impact imho. Regardless, a recommended read! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Colonisation, and War

biancalouisew's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

a deft weaving of the stories of real, layered characters that encompasses the emotional complexities of family as well a discerning account of the cesspool that is australian media and twitter. it was however, quite refreshing to consume this media hate in a form that wasn't contradictory (news websites dogging on the 24 hour news cycle they contribute to, redditors complaining about twitter users and the like). chandran's vocabulary is simply delictable, a pleasure to read a book with an individual voice this well put-together considering recent fiction (booktok i'm looking at you). my only irk is that it wasn't longer, the story wraps itself up nicely, but more character exploration could've ironed out any disjointed I felt jumping between flashbacks and current life. I'm also a sucker for reminiscing on childhood friendships, which was mentioned very briefly and I wish was explored more. Interested to revisit this book in 20 years to see how it ages, very of the time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Colonisation and War

taro4lyfer's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Chai Time) has beautiful imagery, multiple points of views from diverse characters, insights into the trauma for Sri Lankan Tamil migrants, as well as a striking portrayal of the Australian landscape regarding immigrants and community. 

The characters are well thought out with their own motivations, desires, and beliefs while both settings (Sri Lanka and Cinnamon Gardens) are captivatingly written. 

Chai Time also won the Miles Franklin award in 2023, which is well deserved. 

The only reason it isn’t 5 stars is because it is definitely the kind of book that requires content and trigger warnings, which it didn't include. Hopefully future editions will include content warnings in the book or a mention online - the online content warnings so far are user written on storygraph or AI generated based off of reviews. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

All of the trigger warning concepts are explored through the character arcs and repeatedly brought up during the story to expand on how they affect the characters emotionally.

sop17hie's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.5

Much sadder and brutal than I expected from the beautiful cover

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

vivisms_82's review against another edition

emotional sad

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Good book and worth reading. I'm in two minds though - I like many (if not most) of the book - the detailed description of the war in Sri Lanka, British colonisation, the immigrant experience when you look different, have an accent, pray differently etc - I get that. The racism and violence are absolutely valid and I get what she was trying to say but it became too much too soon in escalation that I think it lost some of it's impact, reducing it's believability as a whole when lumped all together like that in a short period of time. I was thinking "yes, this is a book we need right now" but then it became relentless in bringing the point home and I was a little bummed. I'm glad it's become part of book clubs and people are discussing some topics that they otherwise mayn't have felt comfortable bringing up. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Dementia, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence

mills33's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Islamophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

terranovanz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail