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Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

17 reviews

dale_in_va's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

4.0

Historical fiction book that reflects modern concerns.   The narrative is smart and engaging.  The story is told through 4 characters with intersecting narratives.  

The story is a simultaneously depressing and hopeful.  A distinct critique of a disfunctional society and how its corruption, cronism and sycophantic behavior results in a society that is unable to keep it's citizens safe or even respond to the ineviable results of its ineptitute.

I read this book for a book club.  It is very well written, but I found it so deflating in light of current politics.  It astounds me that this is the type of society that the US wants to go back to.  Where cruel cowards are in charge and cause chaos in their wake with the competent left to figure out a way to clean up the the messes they leave in their wake.

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silfron's review against another edition

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

4.25


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lisettemarie's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense

4.25


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angiebradley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0


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kimveach's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

I loved this look at the actual historical event of the theater in Richmond, VA, burning down in 1811.

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vireogirl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad fast-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

Picked it up from the new shelf at the library. It follows 4 different people affected by the theater fire. The dilemmas felt very realistic. The history was interesting. The drama was riveting. 

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libraryofthecrypt's review

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medium-paced

3.0

I’m kind of wondering if I’m heading into a slump or if it was just the book. At 41% of the way in I mostly felt meh about the book. I didn’t really care for any of the characters either. And after finishing it I’m glad that I didn’t purchase this like I’ve been thinking about doing since April. 

This was the first time I had heard of the fire and it’s clear that the author did quite a bit of research on it. If this book interest you I would still give this a read as I think it’s more of a me thing.

This made me want to go back down the rabbit hole of researching the 1800s and reading books set in that time period after this though. Not so much because of the story but because of the fire and realising how little I know about that time period.

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gondorgirl's review against another edition

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

4.0


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amberjackonski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-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? No

5.0


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brynpemery's review against another edition

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

3.5

Totally entertaining but some of the characters lacked nuance for me. And given that they were largely based on real people, the girlbossification of a few of them rubbed me the wrong way. Very 2023 sensibilities for people living in the South in 1811. 

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