Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

15 reviews

michaelion's review

challenging mysterious medium-paced

• 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? Yes

2.5

Damn. I spoke too soon (in my review for Annihilation). I dozed off at least three times reading this. It wasn't exceptionally boring or bad but I believe if something is good enough even if I'm already tired I'll stay alert to enjoy it.

As a joke the first time I saw Lowry's name I thought "What if I google that name and get spoiled that Lowry was secretly the big bad all along?" I didn't google it but I ended up being right??? What the hey hey.

I thought of Control as a manchild, mostly because of his attachment to his mommy but also he didn't seem to get much of anything done. Not a critique of the book I just don't have anyone to talk to about it. Also negative points because characters have names now and I just think that's misogynistic!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Death

Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Body horror, and Confinement

Minor: Stalking, Cancer, Death of parent, and Animal death

judassilver's review

challenging dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Body horror

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

sophieamreacher's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

Utterly bizarre, I felt like I was being hypnotised myself. Really interesting plot, characters and concept. The writing was intriguing and kept me feeling disorientated like the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Blood, Cancer, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Alcohol, Abandonment, Grief, and Gun violence

jess2obsess's review

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Abandonment, Cancer, and Death of parent

bomenvernietiger's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Brave choice to not feature a new expedition into the area at all, and to completely rely on the academic and administrative side of the plot, but it pays off. Because of this, the story sometimes gets a little too slow, but overall the slow-burn works well.

Very colourful prose, sometimes trying a little too much to be clever, occasionally leading to metaphors and expressions that are just a little weird. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gun violence, Mental illness, Child abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cursing

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

mosshaunt's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

struggled to get through this one. something about it made me reread passages a lot, thinking i missed something.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Animal death, Cancer, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Racism, and Vomit

calico_camaraderie's review

mysterious tense

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and Cancer

Minor: Death and Death of parent

bedtimesnack's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Death of parent, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, and Cancer

jiaojiao's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

3.0

Jeff VanderMeer’s Authority is a much more character-driven story than its prequel, Annihilation, which also, unfortunately, made it feel a lot slower than Annihilation to me. Authority follows John “Control” Rodriguez, an agent sent to the Southern Reach to take on the role of its new (and perhaps only interim) director after the former director fails to return with the other members of the expedition team. John attempts to unravel the mystery of Area X from the outside in, beginning with interviewing the Biologist (who seems to have returned from Area X unscathed), and working through the haphazard notes left by the former director. Unfortunately, his presence is unwanted at the Southern Reach—and the reasons for that are hidden in an unexpected conspiracy set into motion long before John had been chosen to go to the Southern Reach.

Like Annihilation, Authority switches between present events and an intensely introspective look at select events from the character’s past. Unlike Annihilation, these events don’t seem to relate directly to the mystery of Area X; instead, they seem to exist primarily to provide insight into John’s character and motivations. Worse, the frequent narrative switch to his past interrupted any sense of eeriness/creepiness that the present events were struggling to maintain.

It became clear halfway through the novel that VanderMeer had no intentions of solving the mystery of Area X in Authority. I thought VanderMeer had done an amazing job of setting the scene and mood in Annihilation; Authority felt like a diversion from both that was unnecessarily long while contributing very little to the story.

Aside from that issue, I didn’t like John as a character at all, and I struggled a lot with connecting with him. That could definitely have influenced how much I like (or dislike) Authority as a novel. 

My rating system:

★☆☆☆☆ - DNF.
★★☆☆☆ - I really wish I’d read something else.
★★★☆☆ - Glad I finished, but I’m probably not re-reading this.
★★★★☆ - I really enjoyed reading this! Would probably rec/re-read.
★★★★★ - OMG.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent and Confinement

scifi_rat's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Gore, Racism, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Cursing, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, and Violence