Reviews tagging 'War'

Als wir Waisen waren by Sabine Herting, Kazuo Ishiguro

16 reviews

smal_practice's review against another edition

Excruciating war descriptions

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, and War

mariavdl's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Colonisation, Racism, Racial slurs, Vomit, Addiction, Mental illness, Infidelity, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Slavery

hannah_cogo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

this book was insane. an intense journey. incredibly well written and detailed, very well structured and consistent. but the ending left me so sad and empty.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Child death, Death, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, Animal death, Vomit, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Misogyny, Child abuse, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Drug use, Genocide, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, War, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical trauma, Rape, Mental illness, Blood, and Sexism

very intense and has a lot of graphic/triggering themes so read with caution!!

blau_elmo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Ishiguro pulls through with his poignant settings and conclusions once again. 

I think that the protagonist's traversing through the warzone in Shanghai is particularly gripping. I felt dread slowly build within me as I read through the last third of the book. The loss, the love foregone, the themes of redemption (left ungranted) etc. are all written wonderfully.

Not as clean as The Remains of the Day or Never Let Me Go in my opinion, but still fantastic.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Blood

laurenipsum's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Classism, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Colonisation, Death, and Racism

strrygo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

pale view of hills nd when we were orphans on top for ishiguro endings that make me want to reread immediately

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Rape and Gun violence

booksjessreads's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I found this book to be a lot harder to get into than Ishiguro's other books and it wasn't until around the 70% mark when things really started to pick up for me. Usually, I would DNF a book that I was not interested in, but I did desperately want to finish my Ishiguro collection and so I did power through. The last 30% is where it got a bit more tense and I felt as though the story was going somewhere. Although, one overall disappointment that I had was that I felt as though the theme of 'orphans' was not explored as well as it could have been.

The first half of the book becomes a mixture of Banks' history and his present, as he is recollecting memories from when his parents disappeared amongst his mundane life, as well as whilst he is travelling back to Shanghai. I know memory works in this way normally, where things are not reminisced upon as clear cut and segmented as book chapters, but I felt the blending of these made it difficult on audio to gather where we were in the story. Although, having said this, when Banks is thinking back to his time with Akira, I enjoyed these periods of friendship. 

I would say the last 30% was quite tense as you feel like the chase is on to find Banks' parents. The audio certainly heightened that tension for me and made me feel more engaged with the story. The ending was also quite moving and was bittersweet, in it's typical Ishiguro fashion. 

I think I would need to re-read this again to fully appreciate it more, but it is also one I don't feel attached to or immediately drawn to. I think that it has got the classic Ishiguro elements: themes of memory and identity and unreliable narrators. I just think it wasn't carried off as well as his other works.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and War

Moderate: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

anderson27paige's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Kazuo Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors because his ideas are so original and speak to larger problems in society but some of his books, including this one, have the same issue of being slow and uninteresting for the first 80% of the book and then being captivating and meaningful in the last 20%. The majority of this book bounces back and forth between a current timeline and the main characters childhood and it’s often difficult to tell why you’re learning the information you’re learning. I don’t regret reading it and it did give me something to think about regarding the values we hold as a society and how our childhoods affect us, but I don’t know that I would recommend it unless you’re familiar with Ishiguro’s style and willing to be confused for a bit.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

remuslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Gun violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Rape, and Drug use

brotlord's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Minor: Vomit and Rape