Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Sacred And Terrible Air by Robert Kurvitz

3 reviews

accywolf's review

5.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Violence, Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, War

whaddahell's review

3.0

challenging dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who isn't already interested in the world of Disco Elysium. Although it does provide a lot of interesting insight into The Pale and the world outside of Revachol it is quite difficult to read at times. This is no doubt due to the fact that this is a fan translation. I wish we could get an official translation but I don't think that will come any time soon considering what is going on between ZA/UM and the original creators of Disco Elysium. Alas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Car accident

noel_b's review

3.0

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Disclaimer 1: I read the fan translation by Group Ibex and, while it's clearly a labor of love, there is some jankiness to the prose that's clearly the product of machine translation. Not enough to make it hard to understand, but it did take me out of the story a couple of times. It's hard to judge the book's prose or style, because I'm unable to separate what's a product of the author and what's a product of the translation.

Disclaimer 2: I read this after playing (and loving) Disco Elysium and was already aware of some of the concepts that are central to the world, but that the book isn't concerned with explaining. I probably would have got the important bits just from reading, and it would have been fine, but I can't say if someone new to the world would get frustrated if this book was their point of entry.

That said, I enjoyed the book! It follows three men, still investigating the disappearance of their high-school crushes, decades after the case went cold. Kurvitz is not shy about following flawed people doing ugly things and he is nothing if not thematically consistent. The main characters of Sacred and Terrible Air will feel familiar to anyone that has embodied Harry Du Bois. Pathetic, fuck-up losers, stuck in the past, unable to move forward and, instead, desperate to drag everyone back with them.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Suicide, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Classism