Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

7 reviews

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

So I thought that this was my second time reading this book, but I realized that I had not finished it the first time in ~2014 because towards the end there was content that I found especially disturbing around sexual assault

a female character gets kidnapped by two men and it's implied that she has undergone severe sexual assaults even though details are not described

and one of my friends had recently been sexually assaulted so I found this part of the book too difficult to read at the time. I wrote this first just to warn that there are strong themes of sexual violence / violence against women in this book that were not present in the first and you may have to skip this one or skip specific chapters if you can't read about stuff like that right now. 

That being said, I thought this book was absolutely amazing. Such a unique way to write a sequel and connect it with the first book while expanding on the world so much. I really enjoyed that the book jumped between characters POVs and jumped between time. Loved seeing how characters from this book were related to characters from the first book. 

I really liked the Canadian references. 

All three narrators were very good and this was the first time I'd experienced an audiobook where they made the songs actual songs which I thought was really cool.

the only thing for the songs was I think it would have been better if the songs after year 25 the waterless flood wouldve had no music, just been the guy singing

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Sexual content, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Rape, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Death, Sexual assault, and Animal death

Moderate: Death of parent, Gun violence, Abandonment, and Physical abuse

Minor: Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Torture

nadalien's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Sexual violence, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

pinkthinkydink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

5.0

This genius novel is a perfect sequel to 'Oryx and Crake'. This Dystopian/Speculative Fiction novel reads like poetry and paints an intricate picture of the failings of humanity. This novel does a bang-up job of answering the questions we are left with after the first novel and once again warns us of the dangers of a hyper-capitalist society. 
this book, however, is not for the faint-hearted. Sensitive readers beware

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Body horror, Physical abuse, War, Confinement, Gun violence, Rape, Addiction, and Alcohol

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

MAGGIE U MAKE ME SO UNHINGED how am i to think about anything else now? 

This was so fucking perfect 

Its like if you threw spagettie at the wall and it look like a bug mess of lots of spaghetti at first and then you realised it was all one perfect single strand of spaghetti that maggie a left for you 

'But compassion takes work, and we were young.'

 'Maybe sadness was a kind of hunger, she thought. Maybe the two went together. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THAT??? 

HOW AM I MEANT TO GO ABOUT MY DAY 

NOW MAGGIE???

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Rape, Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual violence

cmkauth's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

sorcha's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Kidnapping, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Suicide, Mental illness, Confinement, and Gun violence

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

2.25

I found The Year of the Flood to be overall underwhelming.  It’s a sort of prequel/sequel/adjacent story to Oryx and Crake.  It failed to offer the same scientific intrigue as the first book set in this world.  Instead, there were environmental preachings through the facade of a religious cult which included feast day sermons and hymns.  The characters remained interesting, but the plot development was so slow, and I don’t feel this book added much to the world.

The Year of the Flood follows two women who were part of the same religious cult called God’s Gardeners.  The Gardeners warned about the coming of the second flood – this time, an invisible flood instead of a physical one.  They also encouraged their practitioners to be vegan and to learn and practice things in a more organic, earthy way.  Toby began her life outside the Gardeners and was brought to them, while Ren was with them most of her childhood, then left.

The pacing is a real struggle because there is so much lead up to the actual time with the Gardeners.  The first 15% or so of the book could have been cut entirely.  In fact, most of the book is backstory on the women to show how they got where they are.  In Oryx and Crake, this made more sense because Jimmy’s story showed the coming of the true dystopia as he watched things come together and then fall apart.  Here, it’s almost fan fiction.  The women on their own are intriguing enough, but because we already know so much of the world, their own stories don’t add anything.  They’re also contrasting romantic/sexual stories… sort of.  One is of hiding and eventually vengeance against a man who repeatedly raped one of them, the other of a broken heart.

What bothers me the most about the two weaving storylines – other than the complete lack of momentum – is that neither is really resolved.  Even though things happen, they weren’t dramatic enough to offer a true sense of closure.  And the frequency of which both men intertwined within each of the women’s lives called out too many coincidences for me.  I know a story like this isn’t meant to be realistic, but generally speaking the world should press on the unbelievable, not the plot.

The Year of the Flood required a lotto patience.  Oryx and Crake did too, but I at least felt that the book delivered on some level.  The Year of the Flood doesn’t deliver anything worth your time, but it does describe repeated rape, infidelity, drug use, gruesome murders that exist for no reason, and more.

Give it a pass.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cannibalism