Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

22 reviews

ribbenkast's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This was such a great read! For a debut it's really strong. I read this in one day and I could not put the book down. 

Small notes: It could've done with some quicker pacing in the second half of the book. The stylistic choice (?) of not adding quotation marks anywhere was a bit weird and made it hard to read sometimes.

However, the premise was really strong and the plot did deliver on said premise. The world building seems really thoughtful, I love it when authors think the consequences of their magical world through and present us with things like folklore and sensible governing structures.

Despite the setting, I liked it that the story mainly focused on the people. Odile is a great and complicated character, very well written.  

If you like timeline fuckery, this one is for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

kelsea's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Minor: Domestic abuse and Alcohol

victoriarose12's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

This was a very interesting take on time travel, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first half was absolutely fantastic, and I really connected with the characters. I struggled with most of the second half, as I felt like the protagonist didn't match the version from part 1. But it was excellent again towards the end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Terminal illness

kalaser's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

himpersonal's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.25

Time travel books generally make my head hurt, but I got through this one to the end without having any questions, although I admit the circular nature of time travel did get confusing at the very end. But because of that confusion, I’m now wondering a whole lot of new questions regarding the future rather than how-in-the-worlds, which are the normal questions I struggle with when confronted by this circuity. It wasn’t clever. It was even a little sad. But it was redemptive and satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Classism, and Deportation

michad's review

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

A good book. The frenchisms take a little getting used to and the presence of cars feels so out of place and anachronistic. I was expecting more exploration of the mechanics and secrets of the world, the change in direction of the second half took me by surprise. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

kiwichill's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Gun violence, Excrement, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

takecoverbooks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

ivi_reads_books's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

What an intriguing concept carefully crafted into a story that made me feel like I know this valley and its inhabitants

The book explores themes like isolation, shyness, regret and societal expectations through a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of a quite classist society.

I'll be sure to read whatever the author decides to read next

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.75

Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the free copy of this book.

 - Fans of literary sci-fi, gather round, because THE OTHER VALLEY is made for you.
- The quiet, spare prose calls to mind NEVER LET ME GO, which is then layered with multifaceted, unanswerable questions about morality, grief, and the road not taken.
- This book takes several unexpected turns and kept me guessing, and also trying to sort out what I would do in Odile’s place.
- The logistics of this society and how the Conseil structure came to be are never really explained, but I kind of enjoyed how the details were waved away and this book was just allowed to be a character study and extended thought experiment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail