Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Inden vi blev jeres by Lisa Wingate

71 reviews

meg43735's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book... I cried multiple times. It is such a tough, heavy read, but also is so beautiful by the end. So many beautiful quotes.

I really was grateful that each chapter switched times from past to present, because the past was so so hard to swallow. The present day chapters were like a pallette cleanser. Doing this also helped to build some of the tension of EACH timeline. I really liked it.

The only reason it is not a 5 star rating is because of the "romance" story. It was a little unnecessary, though not necessarily bad...? Idk
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radh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

Interesting storyline and leaves me wanting to read about the historical "baby farms" this book was based on. a good historical fiction book that seems to highlight an important part of history and informs the reader of facts they may not be aware of. 
Writing-wise, There were a ton of characters and at times it was a bit hard to keep track of them. Additionally, the first half of the book was a little slow but the second half was very interesting and kept you reading. 
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ncholmes2022's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I really liked this book, and learned a lot about an period of history I was not familiar with.
It switches between two points of view: Rill, a kidnapped child during the depression, and Avery, a modern day lawyer and politician.
The prose was lovely and well written.
Some of the content was rough to read, particularly the child abuse and pedophilia.
I also did not care for the relationship subplot in Avery's point of view and felt like it bordered on justifying emotional infidelity. I also felt like she had too many subplots going on at once, but maybe that let the reader feel the stress and busyness of her life.
I did see good character development in both her and Rill. 
Overall this was a powerful book, and I would recommend it to those who can handle the content warnings below.
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ali_james's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative sad tense slow-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

4.25

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meganlafo's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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chickaboogawah's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-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? No

5.0

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gmariposa1's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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cats_and_needles's review against another edition

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

4.0

This book was a very difficult and emotional read. I cried a lot near the end. The secrets in the book are easy to predict, and at times I wanted to tell the present day character to figure it out already! I had no knowledge of the real history the book is based on prior, and I want to learn more about the real children's stories. One thing that troubled me about the present day narrative is that it clearly took place in the South, and there are mentions of a slave cabin and plantations, but no acknowledgement about the similar tragedies that slaves experienced being separated from their children and parents. It was unsettling that the present day narrator had no qualms with developing romantic feelings while researching in a slave cabin.
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nataliecoyne's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I debated myself a lot on this 3.5 star rating, as I did really enjoy this novel and found the history to be very interesting, albeit very sad. But it is what I landed on due to two issues I had with the book that just took me away from it. The first issue I had was with the romance subplot between
Avery and Trent
. A lot of people probably would like this, but I personally felt it was quite forced and almost read like a Hallmark movie. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a super fan of
Elliot
either, but I just think the romance part of things could've been left out.

Second was how Wingate got across the character's accents. I understood the choice, I really did, and I think this can really bring a story together when done well. But, with this, some of the additions and some of the taking things out made some dialogue hard to understand.

Again, as for the overall content of this novel, I really enjoyed it and I think this is a dark period of history that others should know about. I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to read the book's nonfiction companion piece, but I am seriously considering it. But I couldn't bring myself to give it a higher rating, unfortunately.
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syrah78's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

4.25/5

I could not put down this novel. Avery could not discover the truth fast enough for me. Wingate really brought to life this hidden tragedy in American history. It was heart wrenching and just awful as each sibling disappeared from Rill. All the characters were given a really nice depth and the river was beautifully written. I met the author who wrote this book and she said that she always gives you a happy ending, so I had to just keep telling myself that and the ending really was nice.
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