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ringofkeyz's Reviews (147)
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Complicated
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Medical content, Grief, War
Moderate: Ableism, Suicide
Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
would've been rated a lot higher if there was no incest.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Abandonment
Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity
Minor: Miscarriage
informative
reflective
slow-paced
"That is why I taught my children how to garden. So they would still have a mother to love them even after I am gone."
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it's a train wreck you can't look away from that's caused by the train conductor's own delusion and self-aggrandizement.
ms. rebecca f. kuang, you have done it again.
ms. rebecca f. kuang, you have done it again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Cultural appropriation
Moderate: Rape, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-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
bhumika, my beloved <3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War
Moderate: Misogyny, Blood
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think this book has single-handedly changed my opinion on second person narration.
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What really stuck out to me throughout this book was the use of both rhythm and silence as a motif; particularly, the importance of silence and downbeats within a rhythmic pattern. Nelson continuously highlights that these fillable silences are moments were the characters find the most opportunity: the ability to breathe, the ability to be their most authentic.
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What really stuck out to me throughout this book was the use of both rhythm and silence as a motif; particularly, the importance of silence and downbeats within a rhythmic pattern. Nelson continuously highlights that these fillable silences are moments were the characters find the most opportunity: the ability to breathe, the ability to be their most authentic.
I'm like, dancing into the space the drums leave [...] where that silence lies, that huge silence, those moments and spaces the drums are asking you to fill. I dance to breathe but often I dance until I'm breathless [...] and I can feel all of me, all those parts of me I can't always feel, I don't feel like I'm allowed to. [...] I make a little world for myself, and I live.
But you are home, amongst the melody, slipping into percussive breaks, breathing easy.
What is even more poignant is that these breaks in the rhythm are always in reference to Black music, predominantly jazz and hip hop. The characters find their most authentic selves in art that was made by people who understand their human experience. This directly contrasts the moments in which our narrator feels most stifled and unable to breathe: when he is being perceived by white people - most often white people in power, such as the police - and being judged at surface level rather than being truly seen (another theme of the novel). He is most able to express his joy and connect with his own art when he is surrounded by other expressions of Blackness.
I guess I'm always trying to make things which are reflective of Black music, which, to me, is some of the greatest expression of Blackness - that ability to capture and portray a rhythm. So maybe motion is the wrong word, rhythm is better.
Favourite Quotes:
You would soon learn that love made you worry, but it also made you beautiful. Love made you Black, as in, you were most coloured when in her presence.
But when you hear music, and something, something takes you, closes your eyes, moves your feet, hips, shoulders, bobs your head, reaches inwards, invites you to do the same, leads you, if only for a moment, towards something else which has no name, needs no name, do you question it? Or do you dance, even when you don't know the song?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Police brutality
Moderate: Violence, Grief
Minor: Drug use, Alcohol
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage
Minor: Homophobia, Car accident
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
just picked up the book to tide me over until the PWHL season starts next Saturday
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Once again, the Catholic Church is always at the scene of the crime.
Though it's a fictionalized story, it still gave poignant insight into the history of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. After reading this book, I want to learn more about these institutions and how this suffering came to be: how the Irish government and the Catholic Church both allowed and orchestrated these happenings.
It's interesting reading about the failings and cruelties of the Roman Catholic Church. Interesting to me because for all the 8 years I spent at a Roman Catholic school, I never knew this happened. Organizations that commit reprehensible sins never want to admit what they're capable of, and I think this books sheds light on that fact very well. Even more so, Keegan does a great job at pointing out the hypocrisy of the Church: highlighting Catholic values of forgiveness and loving your neighbour through the character of Furlong and juxtaposing that wth the actions of Mother Superior and her convent.
What I loved most about this book was through that juxtaposition, Keegan never looks down upon the religion. The criticism lies solely with the organization. And she uses Furlong as an example of showing what true Catholic values look like when acted upon.
Though it's a fictionalized story, it still gave poignant insight into the history of the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland. After reading this book, I want to learn more about these institutions and how this suffering came to be: how the Irish government and the Catholic Church both allowed and orchestrated these happenings.
It's interesting reading about the failings and cruelties of the Roman Catholic Church. Interesting to me because for all the 8 years I spent at a Roman Catholic school, I never knew this happened. Organizations that commit reprehensible sins never want to admit what they're capable of, and I think this books sheds light on that fact very well. Even more so, Keegan does a great job at pointing out the hypocrisy of the Church: highlighting Catholic values of forgiveness and loving your neighbour through the character of Furlong and juxtaposing that wth the actions of Mother Superior and her convent.
What I loved most about this book was through that juxtaposition, Keegan never looks down upon the religion. The criticism lies solely with the organization. And she uses Furlong as an example of showing what true Catholic values look like when acted upon.
QUOTE THAT WILL STAY WITH ME:
“What most tormented him was not so much how she’d been left in the coal shed or the stance of the Mother Superior; the worst was how the girl had been handled while he was present and how he’d allowed that and had not asked about her baby – the one thing she had asked him to do – and how he had taken the money and left her there at the table with nothing before her and the breast milk leaking under the little cardigan and staining her blouse, and how he’d gone on, like a hypocrite, to Mass.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Physical abuse, Religious bigotry
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent