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Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

36 reviews

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0


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sarasreading's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5, maybe 5. I can't even form proper thoughts for this book I've just finished. It's complex yet simple. It's about paradoxes, pandemics, writing, loneliness, second chances, all of human history and a single moment at the same time. It's hard to believe so much was packed into such a small book. It kept me thinking and guessing and reflecting the whole time, with lovely prose.

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sar_a_i's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

4.75


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starrysteph's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • 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

3.25

I'm a little torn on this one. I enjoy stories about time travel – and I enjoy stories about time travel with lyrical, dream-like writing and complex questions. But some of the actual content fell flat.

We cross huge spans of time in this novel, but the writing style stays the same. I wanted more differentiation between the voices of characters in 1912 and 2020 and far into the future. I also felt that there was a lack of creativity or perhaps "realism" when we go far into the future. Why are things EXACTLY the same as they are in 2020? Yes, people live on the moon, but there isn't any nuance here.

I also felt some frustration at the recklessness and thoughtlessness of Gaspery's decisions. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but the choices he made and the shifting of timelines felt too simplistic and didn't make sense. And in general, I didn't find myself making deep emotional connections to any of the characters. (And there was some content around Olive as a writer of pandemic stories that felt like a clear self-insert and was a little silly.)

Overall, I enjoyed the concept. I enjoyed the weaving together of the stories (though it became a little cliche by the end). I enjoyed the writing style. But once I zoomed in and thought a bit more critically about the material, I found myself disappointed. 

CW: chronic illness, confinement, death, colonisation, murder, gun violence, suicide, war, alcohol, pandemic, sexism

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emhunsbaker's review against another edition

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

4.75


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bjg222's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-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

4.25

Ok, Emily St John Mandel really likes to write about pandemics... There were a few spots where this book got a little too real. But the pandemic wasn't the focus of the book, so it wasn't as much of a challenge as the last one. I did thoroughly enjoy he self referential qualities of the Olive character, and perhaps it made me even a little more accepting of what I felt were the flaws of Station Eleven (Olive directly mentioned all ofy criticisms in her dialog! I felt very seen, maybe a little rebuffed). But the overall story was fun and engaging, if a littleatter of fact at times (occasionally things just happened that felt like curve balls and left me unsure why).  And it held onto it's final mystery a while, I didn't understand the cause of the anamoly until about 2-3 chapters before it was actually revealed, which I enjoyed. 

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