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pomoevareads's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Moderate: Racism, Colonisation, Gun violence, and Sexual content
ameliawilt's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Sexual content and Death
caseythereader's review
- 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
- What an inventive, emotional, and thought provoking book THE MINISTRY OF TIME is.
- This book is what I would call literary sci-fi, which is one of my favorite genre mashups. It’s also quite heavily character focused, with most of the action happening in the last third of the book.
- Despite my usual love of plot-heavy books, I was immediately drawn into the story of our unnamed narrator and her displaced-from-time charge.
- It’s easy to see how much research Bradley put into this book, but it never loses the intense emotion amid the historical tidbits.
- I don’t even have the space to touch on the elements of race, survivor’s guilt, and of catching someone up on centuries of history. There is so much going on in this book and I’m going to be thinking about all the pieces of it for a long time to come.
Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, Violence, Vomit, Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Drug use, Grief, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, and Sexual content
Minor: Genocide and War
alvos98's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, and War
not_to_day's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Vomit, Homophobia, and Sexual content
Minor: War
sarahyjackson's review
- 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
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Racism, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Genocide, Cannibalism, and Lesbophobia
kirstenw's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Cannibalism
essieruth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Xenophobia, Grief, Confinement, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Cannibalism, Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Addiction, Blood, Classism, Alcohol, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Physical abuse
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, and Slavery
deedireads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
The Ministry of Time got a LOT of hype. The back of my advanced reader’s copy, which I received several months ago, said it was “already an international sensation, with rights sold in 17 languages and a TV adaptation in the pipeline after a 21-way auction.” It’s got an incredible lineup of blurbs, including from Eleanor Catton, Max Porter, and…Emily Henry.
Here’s the premise: Our unnamed narrator has been hired by a new branch of the government to live with, guide, and monitor an “expat” who was pulled from their home — the past. Our MC is assigned Lieutenant Graham Gore, an arctic explorer from the 1800s. And then they fall in love. (WOW.)
So, does it deliver on all that promise? I’ve seen mixed reviews, but as for me, I say yes — IF you go into it with the right expectations.
This book fits best in the literary fiction genre, given the interiority of the main character (although the end reads more like a sci-fi thriller). But it’s still doing a lot of different things at once — time travel, a romance plotline, history, a little dystopia, humor, not to mention themes like moving through the world as a white-passing Asian person, survivor’s guilt, and kind of growth required for a character to jump from a period of colonization to our present-day understanding of race and civil rights. So go into this book knowing that it’s not going to have the space to focus on any one of those things in depth. Also, time travel is HARD and full of plot holes by nature, so take that in stride. If you do, I think you’ll have a lot of fun with it.
Some have said this book tries to do too much and delivers on none of it. But I found it to be like the best kind of meal you make from whatever’s in your refrigerator — a ton of ingredients you love, not too much brain power required, and a tasty result in the end. Call it the literary beach read of the summer.
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Cannibalism
bessadams's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Violence, Suicide, Racism, Kidnapping, Death, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cannibalism