Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Les Oiseaux du temps

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Les Oiseaux du temps by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

112 reviews

spadedigsbutts's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Very hard to talk about this book as it's essentially just two characters sending letters back and forth with deeply confusing but extremely poignant and beautiful poetic prose. Every sentence drips with yearning and drama . This is the sort of book you save lines from to read again and again. There's very few characters but our main couple have different flavors to them in their individual sections. You absolutely do feel how much they care for one another despite their antagonistic beginning.

In all honesty I am not a huge poetry person and personally prefer more clear story elements, but I still enjoyed parts of this book. I don't believe I'd read it again, but I'd still reccomend it if you want a book that's just 100% desperate savage emotional vibes. The main characters are just 5th dimensional monster women full of violent yearning and that's pretty neat.

Content Warnings

sge_mmu_sherhol_ftsy_main's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

effievee's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

jasminawithab's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

might bump it up to a 5 star on a reread

i actively do not like time travel and sci fi as a whole isnt something i gravitate towards, but oh gods did i adore this book. my most prevalent annotation was just "AAAA". im not joking, i probably wrote it at least 20 times.

the twist at the end was admittedly one i saw coming (i guessed it by the second letter) but i could not figure out how it worked so it was still interesting and shocking when it did get revealed.

per my adult/minor relationship cw:

one of the main characters (Red; an adult) travels back in time and kisses the other main character (Blue) who was a child at the time with romantic intent and for other more spoilery reasons. this comes at the end of the novella after the two have already fallen in love and confessed when they are adults. while Blue was fine with it in the future/present when she realizes it was Red, she did not consent or know what was happening when she was a child. i added the cw because this made me feel a bit iffy and i felt like it could have been resolved another way. it was literally only a paragraph or two though

fav quotes:

"[i am] yours as i review your words by their sequence, their sound, smell, taste, taking care no one memory of them becomes too worn"

"i want to meet you in every place i have loved"

"there was, i am sure, a time i did not know you. or did i dream that me, as i've so often dreamed of you?"

"i'll be all the poets, i'll kill them all and take each ones place in turn, and every time love's written in all the strands it will be to you"

Content Warnings

emohell's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

it was okay

Content Warnings

plume_de_renarde's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Content Warnings

maello's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this book. It is a bit difficult to read in the sense of wording/sentence structure. It can come off as a bit of a 'pretentious' read. Another thing is that this is not a book that is primarily about a 'time war' you're not going to get chapters based on fighting a war, at least not in the literal sense you might think. It's more based on the two characters, and their relationship with each other and the secondary relationship to their side/cause. The book is short so the pacing is fast but I wouldn't say it's rushed, just fast. In the true nature of books regarding being able to move through time, there's a lot of surprising interactions/twists (?) that are really nice. I would definitely recommend this book to people who like shorter emotional stories, or people that enjoy reading literature with this kind of tone.

Content Warnings