Reviews with content warning for Animal death - A Tale for the Time Being

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

31 reviews

saintmaud's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.5

Nao's attempt at writing about her nun great grandmother was what caught my attention first and made me add this to my tbr, but I loved Ruth's parts equally, if not more. I loved the natural science parts as well as her relationship with Oliver and life on the island and the magic realism towards the second half was done well too. Will be thinking about this one for some time.

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waybeyondblue's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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miladimelow's review against another edition

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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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