Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - Sea of Tranquility

Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

118 reviews

hward's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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kaedau's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

⭐️ 3.5 stars ⭐️

I’ve been floundering between a 3.5 and a 4 star rating for this book, but ultimately settled on 3.5 because it just didn’t live up to the expectations for me.

The writing is absolutely STUNNING. And there are some really amazing moments in this story, but the beginning was a little slow and I didn’t expect how heavy handed the pandemic talk would be throughout, since Station Eleven was also about a pandemic. That being said, Olive Llewellyn’s POV was my favorite. And the audible gasp I had when everything came together in the end!! It was a satisfying story, but just not what I came in expecting.

Overall, the story has a very haunting quality to it, something that you might be caught unexpectedly thinking about from time to time.

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theebster's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Excellent all around. As always, the interconnectedness of the characters was delightful to uncover. The settings were also fantastic, I really enjoyed envisioning the moon colonies and how they changed over time.

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pacifickat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

*review pending*

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katy_bee's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I really like Emily St John Mandel's writing style, although as I said I'm my review of station 11- I can see it isn't for everyone.
There's an obvious author insert character which I wasn't sure about at first but I came round to it.
The first few chapters meander and you have to wait for it to come together, it did for me and it was beautiful

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ecster's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Loved this book so much. A perfect blend of beautiful, poetic prose and science fiction, with just the right amount of wibbly-wobbly timey wimey mind-boggling time travel mess.

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jamie1498's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Unique story structure and wonderfully written. While some characters intrigued me more than others, it was an engaging read.

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chrispy_mac's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

2.0

This book wants to be Cloud Atlas without understanding what was good about it. It has some almost-good ideas that are underbaked and way too much of the author talking to the audience in a way that should have been a blog post.

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erikabites's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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maeverose's review against another edition

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4.0

This took a long time - about half the book - to grow on me. Up to that point it was very ‘meh’. But then once the stronger sci-fi elements came in I didn’t want to put it down, and the first half became more interesting in hindsight.

I don’t want to say too much, I think it’s better to go into it not knowing much. If you like sci fi stories that involve a mystery but mainly focus on characters, their relationships, and mundane aspects of people’s lives, I would recommend. I found the writing style very easy to read as well, not confusing or difficult as sci-fi books can be for me sometimes, especially with my adhd brain.

The main content warning I would give for this, in the least spoilery way possible: it involves questioning reality. I didn’t personally feel like it was done in a triggering way. It doesn’t dwell on it too much. But if that’s an especially triggering topic for you then that’s something to keep in mind. The spoiler version:

It’s a ‘life is a simulation’ situation. It’s never fully confirmed in the book that this is the case, but it’s strongly suggested.

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