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atsundarsingh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.5
DO NOT read if pandemic stories still hit you hard, BUT incredibly well-written. I thought the anthology format would be impossible to pull-off here, and yet it really worked. I LOVED the ending. Also, several of the stories genuinely stopped me in my tracks, where I couldn't read another one after and had to take a break. Really a surprising read for me overall.
bez9918's review against another edition
5.0
This was a book well worth the push I needed to get through the difficult topic of child death. This was so intricately woven on both a structural level and a thematic level.
This book was heart wrenching to read, hearing of parents choosing how their child dies was not an easy thing but it was done in a delicate way that felt like humanity was earnestly trying its best. The stories felt incredibly true to the human experience and it felt real in its depiction of how far a parent would go to do what they believe is best for their child.
Difficult to read but in the most meaningful way possible, incredible book
This book was heart wrenching to read, hearing of parents choosing how their child dies was not an easy thing but it was done in a delicate way that felt like humanity was earnestly trying its best. The stories felt incredibly true to the human experience and it felt real in its depiction of how far a parent would go to do what they believe is best for their child.
Difficult to read but in the most meaningful way possible, incredible book
lauramay94's review against another edition
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bokegg's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bexellency's review against another edition
2.0
Not what I expected and for me it started strong and just got weird. Barely a novel. Better described as interrelated short stories. (Something I’d missed when reading the synopsis.). Although each without the snap and ending of a good short story. I liked some of the early ones best - 30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy, City of Laughter, Elegy Hotel. I didn’t find a pig Son as memorable as other readers (had forgotten it until I was reading the end material author interview). Things got weird for me in a life Around the Event Horizon - a singularity in his head, what does that even mean? Both confusing and made me feel the way “films” do, like somehow I’m not smart enough to get it. And while I might have liked a couple stories after that (Meloncholy Nights, Grave Friends) the level of weird stayed high (Before You Melt Into the Sea) and I just wanted to be done reading. So not a book of speculative fiction I had expected from my apparently poor and incomplete reading of the blurb. Rather a book about grief. And I reject the Station Eleven comparison, as I loved that book.
teaselkie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Child death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
kjgoesrawr's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
3.0
This was not my cup of tea. The description lured me in. I was not a fan of how this book flowed. However, if I had not been listening to this book it would have been a DNF.
electricdryad's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This book is a thought experiment on grief, dying, and cultural death practices masquerading as a sci fi novel. (It is also a sci fi novel.) It takes a super interesting guess at what life and society would be like in a world where so many people are dying every day that it reshapes how everyone deals with death and grief at a huge scale. It was thought provoking and sad and also kind of weird but I loved it.
skz0424's review against another edition
4.0
That was fascinating and not at all what I was expecting.