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purplatypus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Rape, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
mbelle97's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping
Minor: Suicide, Stalking, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship
content warning: cults, religious zealotsjillianselene's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Confinement
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, and Kidnapping
Minor: Gun violence, Medical content, Rape, and Pregnancy
berodatheelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Death, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Medical content, Child death, Grief, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
rmkg's review against another edition
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, and Suicide
Moderate: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child death, Grief, and Gun violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
izzyrbell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Murder, Religious bigotry, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
fedorasommora's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Gun violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, and Medical trauma
pacifickat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
A lot of disappointed reviewers seemed to want this book to be more than it was, the plot to follow a traditional post-apocalyptic road narrative, with characters fighting for survival in a dystopian landscape punctuated by violent encounters. However, Mandel seems to resist these expected devices, focusing instead on how humans are connected across time and space, nature and technology, and generations. The pandemic in this story demarcates a divide between past and present, a clear before and after. But, is existence more than our perceived notion of time and oir relationship to pivotal moments in history? Does a web of interconnectivity carry through all existence even when we cannot perceive it, even when the world seemingly ends? What is this reality we’re living in? Is it patterned beforehand, or only when looked at it in retrospect, like a forest ecosystem growing organically together? Can meaning and beauty miraculously arise out of mundanity and messiness? Is being briefly and beautifully alive and part of a cosmic whole enough of a miracle in itself? Do we make stories, or do the stories make us? What exists because of us, and what exists outside of us?
It’s complicated.
This seeming magic encircles and envelops conscious existence, but goes unnoticed by the humans navigating the complexities of the pre-pandemic modern world, or fighting to survive in post-pandemic reality. A repeated element of looking upward to the sky when faced with death carries throughout, perhaps searching for sufficient meaning or beauty when survival is not guaranteed and everything finally falls still. Is this akin to the sublime moment the actress dissolves into Titania on stage, her stained wedding gown becoming the adornment of a magical fairy queen?
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, and Suicide
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Child death, and Pedophilia
Minor: Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
jillaay_h's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death, Grief, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Murder
potassiumk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Religious bigotry, Death, Medical content, Kidnapping, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide and Alcohol
Minor: Rape