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emmagreenwood's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicide
caebrown's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Suicide, and Mental illness
Minor: Colonisation
pacifickat's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Grief
Minor: Mental illness and Alcohol
Child neglect, memory problems, hallucinations, difficulty discerning realitykaty_bee's review against another edition
- 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
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
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, and War
Minor: Suicide
jhbandcats's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The feel of the book is like Mandel’s Station Eleven - so many tiny revelations of connection and meaning. The format is like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas where the first and last sections are the same story, the second and next-to-last are the same story, and so on, finally meeting in the middle. It’s a fascinating way to tell a tale - there are so many subtle intricacies.
I enjoyed Mandel’s sardonic humor in her references to what clearly had been her own experience: being queried at readings in 2020-2021 about her prescient pandemic storyline in Station Eleven, her bewilderment that her first books passed under the radar till Station Eleven hit it big and she was suddenly famous.
I think this book is just fabulous. It’s a beautiful story about humanity across the centuries.
Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Colonisation, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic
novella42's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide
maelikesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Confinement and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Deportation, Death of parent, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Colonisation, and Death
Minor: Child abuse
pearlisarobot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Colonisation, Classism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Confinement, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic
theverycraftyvegan's review against another edition
- 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
I will definitely be reading more of Emily St John Mandel.
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Gun violence, and Mental illness
novi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
honestly i started reading this because i really like the first part of this book, which was of edwin, a pragmatic and woke guy from 1912. it was cozy. but this book is not cozy.
one of the things that i don't like from science fiction genre is the futuristic and desert-y settings. this book has it, that atmosphere was really thick in the year of 2203. it was so monotonous but after that it's fine. actually the part after that was where the actual plot was finally clear and i couldn't stop reading from that point.
there are twists and turns in this book, because the timeline of this book is literally not linear. some of the twists gave me goosebumps. i would say that to made those twists, there are some plot holes, and there are things that i still don't understand or not explained in this book.
but all in all it's a book about time travel that explores how that affect humans' lives, and "are we living in a simulation?". Some parts of the book got depressing (war, pandemic, imprisonment), which is not my favorite, but it's a literary so it's kind of a given, and this is a short book, so those moments didn't lasts very long, at least.
Moderate: Confinement and War