Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Blindheten

I've never read a dystopia that felt so real and that truly exposed so much of the realities of society and human nature. It shows perfectly how brittle the security of our modern world is and how unprepared we are to survive disasters. By taking away everyone's sight, you also take away government, morality, hygiene, food security and everything else which is a founding pillar of our society. Be mindful of the very graphic content though (check the trigger warnings!), it's not for the faint of heart.

Content Warnings

xihe's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

I listened to the audiobook!
- Honestly? It is a fairly, maybe even inherently, ableist novel (a complicated discussion far beyond the scope of a bulleted review).
- It's pretty underwhelming as science fiction.
- The issues, plots, and sometimes the prose, felt far more simplistic than what I think (???) it was trying to convey.
- For me, it was somewhat more effective as entertainment than whatever it was attempting to masquerade as.
- I honesty don't see what about it hasn't already been done to death before it already, in a more compelling manner.
- Except perhaps the frank depiction of rape and sexual violence in a pandemic of this nature, though I felt this element deserved more weight and focus in the narrative given the extremely graphic depictions of gang rape we are subjected to. It's also bogged down by some sexism that shows up in the book (both objectification & slut-shaming, for instance).
- We now know it's probably not a realistic depiction of what would happen in a pandemic. I'm not convinced that was the main intention, but I think it probably was one of them.

Content Warnings

aritammarques's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

While I do not share the same feelings, or may I say, lack of faith, towards humanity on the edge of collapse I did find this book gripping and engaging.
As always I love Saramago's characteristic writing style were the dialogue seems to lull you with it's rhythm and where a focused and intuitive reader needs not many explanations to know who's talking or how the action is unfolding.
Maybe it's because I share the writer's nationality but he's novels era always imprinted with such a familiarity that sceneries don't need very much describing for me to be able to picture them in my mind. And the way he uses common sense phrases either in the dialogue or in the descriptions always makes me chuckle.

Content Warnings