Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

57 reviews

emilyhwilliams's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Spine cracked, pages annotated, coffee stained--key signs of a book well-loved.

In A Tale for the Time Being, follows two women, Ruth and Nao. Ruth is a novelist living with her husband on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest when she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox wash up on the shore one day containing a purple inked diary and her world collides with Nao, a Japanese teenager who exists not only on the other side of the world been a completely different time. As Ruth slowly unfolds Nao's story, she becomes connected to this girl in ways that she could not fathom. The story not only explores the connections between these two women but also questions our understanding of time and the relationship between a reader and writer. 

I’m unable to find words to describe how much I love this book. You know when you read a book and you can recognize that not only did the author create an intriguing story with multidimensional characters, but they also put a lot of work into the historical accuracy, difficult topics, AND there are little pieces of them as a human woven in throughout? And when you finish reading you immediately go look up the author to find out more about their life and how it led to this book? That was A Tale for the Time Being for me, I felt like because it seemed so evident to me that Ozeki poured her heart and soul into this writing I was able to give my whole heart to this book.

Bonus points for this being a total cat girl book.

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Rape, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Vomit and War

sasisaskia's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, and Trafficking

deannamullican's review against another edition

dark sad 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

1.0

Throughout the whole book all kinds of abuse was described, sometimes in great detail. It was horrifying and way too much for me. It ranged from suicidal thoughts, to bullying in school, to 9/11 and the 2011 tsunami. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, Vomit, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

Minor: Animal death

princessfabulous's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Bullying

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Rape

Minor: Animal cruelty, Vomit, Violence, and War

miladimelow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

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

4.0

“𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

 𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦.

 𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘥.

 𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳.” -p92

I have to say I’m speechless. I mean this was just… this was just incredible!

A tale for the time being follows Ruth, a woman living on an island, as she comes across a lunch box filled with a person’s possession. Included in this is 16 year old Nao’s diary. As the story goes on, Ruth gets warped into the story of Nao’s life, causing an obsession of finding this teenager to emerge.

This was one of those books that just really tugs at your heart strings. Once I’d got the middle of the story, I was really struggling to continue on, as it was incredibly slow and very long. But the writing took as twist at around half way, as you see Nao’s seemingly simply childhood switch. And god that really pained me. This is a beautiful story centred around mainly the importance of family, as well talking about the impact of war, which was really impactful and where I found the writing to be it’s most lyrical. 

I adored so many thing in this book but I’ll just mention a few. Firstly I loved the subtle similarities between Ruth and Nao’s storylines, which really suited especially with the ending.  The lines between the two were completely blurred by the end, and this slow build up to it was incredibly fun to spot. I also LOVED Oliver and Pesto, I really need this duo for me. They really helped wrap up the story, and the little side story between cat and owner was such a sweet way to help the reader relax from the very difficult main storyline.

So really what I want to say is that you should definitely read this! A mix between the midnight library and after dark by Murakami, if you love magical realism you will adore this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Animal death, Body shaming, and Alcohol

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Kidnapping, and Stalking

issiwerro's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Suicide, Vomit, Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War

mayasanseverino's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This book is a must read. Ruth Ozeki’s portrayal of Nao and Ruth are insightful and fascinating. Ozeki creates characters who you just want to spend more time with and a captivating plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Fatphobia

mleckie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This novel was compelling enough to keep reading in short bursts but also a slog to get through some parts. Not sure I “got” it to be honest. 

There are also some pretty heavy and graphic portions that were upsetting to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Bullying

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, War, and Vomit

courtsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Genocide, Medical trauma, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, War, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Islamophobia, Animal death, and Dementia

feifeii's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Rape, Sexual assault, Bullying, War, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Moderate: Dementia and Death