Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

14 reviews

katewhite77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A Book About Venture Capitalism And Gorilla Gardening.

The two don't usually meet, here they do, but is it such a good idea?

Set in New Zealand, a mutilationaire is secretary for minerals under a national park and on adjacent private land owned by the wife of a second billionaire. When the novel opens, the mining has already caused a landslide. 

Then, one day, the secret miner notices someone planning seeds without permission. From there, an environmental thriller unfolds tĥat riffs off Mcbeth.

None of the characters in this are particularly likeable, which makes for a strangely beguiling read as you find yourself routing for them none the less. I think this is a sign of very good writing. 

I don't think this will trouble my top books of the year list, but I am glad I read and enjoyed reading it while it lasted 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Cultural appropriation, Drug use, and Gaslighting

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

babonkadonkas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

OMG

i was kind of annoyed when sir owen was killed bc i feel like i've read a million murder cover ups, but this was SO well done, amazing ending, absolutely gut wrenching, hated all the characters tbh i feel like you meet every one of these ppl on the left lmao. also robert lemoine is elon musk

such an enjoyable read, i need to go read everything else eleanor has written ok bye

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Car accident, Gaslighting, Murder, Vomit, Grief, Gun violence, and Misogyny

qqjj's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Torture, Vomit, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

emelye's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

teaganme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

A bit heavy, but mostly in all the right ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Death, Classism, and Animal death

aj_mooney's review

challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Drug use, and Gaslighting

themorsecode's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

A pageturner. Liked the multi perspective approach and there was some spiky satire on all sides, ending didn't quite land for me but I was hooked to the last page

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Death, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident

velvet_young's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

obiterocelot's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Read if you love: New Zealand accents, the Fox and Ferret bar, gardening, a likeable bad guy, bunkers, hippy communes, not having a clue what is going to happen, young people problems, awkward social relationships, Marxist manifestos, descriptive prose, drone strikes, environmental terrorism.

Avoid if you love: cosy stories about gardening, fast paced and action packed thrillers, happy endings, stories without trigger warnings, hooking up with good guys, conspiracy theorists being wrong.
—————

Ok, but what an ending. And everything really happens in the final 5%! 
The way the mystery unfolds is with one giant twist after another until it feels like you are reading a completely different book than the one you picked up. In the best way possible.
I would never have expected the story to have ended in a complete TPK. Kind of fitting given the environmental themes in the stories. Everyone will go down together.
And I’d put money on that being fully intentional. She is an intelligent woman, Eleanor Catton. Between this and the Luminaries, I’ll pick up whatever she writers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, and Murder