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risemini's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Child death, and Dementia
spookfish's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Man, this book. I feel I'm going to have this settling in my mind a while. I'm just going to share the lines I underlined in my copy, as I can't think of how to discuss it.
'I wonder if what we feel in our hearts today isn't like these raindrops still falling on us from the soaked leaves above, even though the sky itself long stopped raining. I'm wondering if without our memories, there's nothing for it but for our love to fade and die.'
'Yet are you so certain, good mistress, you wish to be free of this mist? Is it not better some things remain hidden from our minds?'
(...) 'We'll have the bad ones come back too, even if they make us weep or shake with anger. For isn't it the life we've shared?'
'I'll never , never give her up.'
(...) 'You've known a long time now there's no cure to save her. How will you bear it, what now lies in wait for her? Do you long for that day you watch your dearest love twist in agony and with nothing to offer but kind words for her ear?'
'How can old wounds heal while maggots linger so richly? Or a peace hold for ever built on slaughter (...)? I see how devoutly you wish it, for your old horrors to crumble as dust. Yet they await in the soil as white bones for men to uncover.'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, and Genocide
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Confinement, and Religious bigotry
booksjessreads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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? Yes
3.0
I am struggling to summarise my thoughts for this novel into a coherent review, but I think this deserved three stars because the intellectual ideas behind this novel were good, but they were not carried out in a way that was interesting or engaging with the reader?
The setting was so magical and was definitely what drew me in to begin with. It was told in a folklore-ish way and was set in an ancient, fantasy world which felt so cosy and mysterious. Axl and Beatrice were also lovely characters, and whilst I was not completely drawn to them all of the time, their bond and love for one another was inspiring and loveable. However, I felt the story was super slow. I listened to the audio alongside this, and I even felt it was difficult through that. I also felt the third-person narrative did not suit the other stylistic choices that Ishiguro had chosen to tell the story with.
However, I still really enjoyed the themes running through the book, such as the idea of collective identity and memory and the complexity of emotions. I think the ideas behind them were really clever, but I just wish the book had been engaged with in a better way.
The setting was so magical and was definitely what drew me in to begin with. It was told in a folklore-ish way and was set in an ancient, fantasy world which felt so cosy and mysterious. Axl and Beatrice were also lovely characters, and whilst I was not completely drawn to them all of the time, their bond and love for one another was inspiring and loveable. However, I felt the story was super slow. I listened to the audio alongside this, and I even felt it was difficult through that. I also felt the third-person narrative did not suit the other stylistic choices that Ishiguro had chosen to tell the story with.
However, I still really enjoyed the themes running through the book, such as the idea of collective identity and memory and the complexity of emotions. I think the ideas behind them were really clever, but I just wish the book had been engaged with in a better way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Murder and War
Minor: Child death and Infidelity
syd4panda's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
the only couple in the world that has my entire heart and all my blessings
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Violence and Dementia
Minor: Grief and Death
anna_m_k's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Dementia
Moderate: War
jwells's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
Literary fantasy that packs a punch, if a reader is willing to meet it on its own terms. It doesn't follow fantasy genre rules for who a protagonist should be, what an action scene should be like, or even what the most important part of the story should be.
I cried more at the end than I did over Never Let Me Go. YMMV.
I cried more at the end than I did over Never Let Me Go. YMMV.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Dementia, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: War
Minor: Child death and Infidelity
armaget's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Interesting book- Read for school and not something I would have picked up myself, not being much into fantasy. However, I was very surprised how much this book grew on me. Should have known- before we started reading it, the teacher told us this was a book she read that stuck with her a long time after she read it. Now, she's passed it on to me and now I have to be thinking about old British couples with fantasy-dementia, shitty knights not doing their jobs, manipulated children with hatred in their hearts, (hey, that's a trope from The Violent Bear it Away) and metaphors for memory.
Metaphors for memory this book is absolutely steeped in. Anymore discussion on memory is gonna kill me. But it was very well done. There are so many angles that the thing is attacked at that you could pick any chapter of the book and have a differing take, which leads to me my other take-
It is very much a sum of it's parts thing, I'd say. Again, I'm not very into fantasy and there is some classic fantasy adventuring here that was actually extremely dull. Lots of sitting around and visiting random villages- Someone in my class said it would have been better as a short story, but I definitely disagree on that.
Like I said before, every chapter has it's important input. It may not be the funnest book to read but once you get to the end it is so so worth it to just piece together your own interpretation with what you've been provided.
So, lots of takes, lots of cool shit you can think about.
Metaphors for memory this book is absolutely steeped in. Anymore discussion on memory is gonna kill me. But it was very well done. There are so many angles that the thing is attacked at that you could pick any chapter of the book and have a differing take, which leads to me my other take-
It is very much a sum of it's parts thing, I'd say. Again, I'm not very into fantasy and there is some classic fantasy adventuring here that was actually extremely dull. Lots of sitting around and visiting random villages- Someone in my class said it would have been better as a short story, but I definitely disagree on that.
Like I said before, every chapter has it's important input. It may not be the funnest book to read but once you get to the end it is so so worth it to just piece together your own interpretation with what you've been provided.
So, lots of takes, lots of cool shit you can think about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Xenophobia, and Death
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Sexual assault
disqmonde's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book is about a pair of characters on a walking journey, which feels like it passes in real time. This book is slow and relaxed, but moves steadily forward as our main characters wander through it, always keeping just enough going on in the plot to interest you in the story and keeping enough hidden behind the mists to make you want to see more. In and of itself, the characters are simple and the story is inconclusive, straddling genre conventions and never feeling quite right as a fantasy or a history. However, the book reads well in the context of modern politics. In between dreamlike passages and Arthurian characters, The Buried Giant asks questions about memory, peace, and responsibility that are never quite answered well enough to satisfy and linger on after the book is finished. This reads more like a fairy tale than a novel; don't come here looking for thrills.
Recommended for literary fiction readers or those who enjoy melancholy.
Recommended for literary fiction readers or those who enjoy melancholy.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence and Dementia
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