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Reviews tagging 'Suicide'
Así se pierde la guerra del tiempo by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
88 reviews
cicizzy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
„I can hide in words so long as I scatter them through my body; to read your letters is to gather flowers from within myself, pluck a blossom here, a fern there, arrange and rearrange them in ways to suit a sunny room.“
This book just feels like pure art. I loved reading the story even though the writing style could also be challenging at times. The story itself is very mysterious and doesn’t really answer any questions. You just have to go with the flow. But it didn’t bother me at all, it just created a mysterious atmosphere that gave the words even more opportunity to shine.
This will be a story I can reread and always find discover new with each read.
This book just feels like pure art. I loved reading the story even though the writing style could also be challenging at times. The story itself is very mysterious and doesn’t really answer any questions. You just have to go with the flow. But it didn’t bother me at all, it just created a mysterious atmosphere that gave the words even more opportunity to shine.
This will be a story I can reread and always find discover new with each read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and War
Minor: Confinement, Death, Torture, and Stalking
mikathereviewer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was one of my most anticipated books for this month and I am so disappointed.
The following will only be a rant about the book. Nothing good I found except that we got an explanation that "Steganography is hidden writing." and that the ending was interesting.
As always; I respect opinions from others and therefore expect the same to be done to me. If you liked the book, so be it. I don't have anything against your opinion or rating to this book.
First of all the letter beginnings are so weird and cringe sometimes. Especially these references. When I understood it right the 'Dearest Blue-da-ba-dee,' is a reference of this one annoying frog song and we also get other cringe-worthy references like 'Dearest 0000FF' (colour hexcode, you all can't legit call this cute or romantic) and of course our so 'cool' flex with languages 'My dear Miskowaanzhe' which is Anishinaabemowin 'cause of course the author totally speaks that language and didn't translate this on full purpose to sound so 'cool'.
The whole writing was always the same, no matter which character wrote the letter and therefore it was sometimes hard to distinguish the two. Both therefore seemed also flat and we only get trauma dumping in the most inappropriate ways. They both also wrote almost since the beginning like they knew eachother since ages and not like strangers that form a bond over time, which made it unrealistic for me to belive that they later on fell in love.
The writing style was also unbearable to me. It was often poetically written but in either cringe or way to melodramatic ways.
Examples
1. ‘Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?
Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.’
2. ‘I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me.’
3. ‘I want to be a body for you.
I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me.’
I also never understood or rather we never got told what kind of creatures they both are. Even though it's science fiction, we barely get any of it. And we get almost no other explanations like how certain things worked like the ways with the MRI machine and stuff as that was their way of sending letter without being caught.
If the writing style would have been different and we would have got more explanations of things I might would have enjoyed the book more. But the whole book felt like a sketch that wasn't supposed to be published yet.
Wasn't for me, but perhaps someone else would like this story and its characters.
July 17, 2024
The following will only be a rant about the book. Nothing good I found except that we got an explanation that "Steganography is hidden writing." and that the ending was interesting.
As always; I respect opinions from others and therefore expect the same to be done to me. If you liked the book, so be it. I don't have anything against your opinion or rating to this book.
First of all the letter beginnings are so weird and cringe sometimes. Especially these references. When I understood it right the 'Dearest Blue-da-ba-dee,' is a reference of this one annoying frog song and we also get other cringe-worthy references like 'Dearest 0000FF' (colour hexcode, you all can't legit call this cute or romantic) and of course our so 'cool' flex with languages 'My dear Miskowaanzhe' which is Anishinaabemowin 'cause of course the author totally speaks that language and didn't translate this on full purpose to sound so 'cool'.
The whole writing was always the same, no matter which character wrote the letter and therefore it was sometimes hard to distinguish the two. Both therefore seemed also flat and we only get trauma dumping in the most inappropriate ways. They both also wrote almost since the beginning like they knew eachother since ages and not like strangers that form a bond over time, which made it unrealistic for me to belive that they later on fell in love.
The writing style was also unbearable to me. It was often poetically written but in either cringe or way to melodramatic ways.
Examples
1. ‘Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?
Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.’
2. ‘I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me.’
3. ‘I want to be a body for you.
I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me.’
I also never understood or rather we never got told what kind of creatures they both are. Even though it's science fiction, we barely get any of it. And we get almost no other explanations like how certain things worked like the ways with the MRI machine and stuff as that was their way of sending letter without being caught.
If the writing style would have been different and we would have got more explanations of things I might would have enjoyed the book more. But the whole book felt like a sketch that wasn't supposed to be published yet.
Wasn't for me, but perhaps someone else would like this story and its characters.
July 17, 2024
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment
jennabean855's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Suicide, Blood, and War
fynm's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
complicated to read and tough go get into at first, but once u get the hang of it, it‘s actually quite sweet
pretty dramatic writing tho, idk why they write their letters so out of character and posh
P.S. for a book about and with letters in it, it‘s really good
pretty dramatic writing tho, idk why they write their letters so out of character and posh
P.S. for a book about and with letters in it, it‘s really good
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
valerian_honeybee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, and War
Moderate: Body horror and Grief
Minor: Genocide
woodglimm's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
i thought i would love this more, since it was praised so much. you get thrown right into the story without much explanation which made it a little hard for me to get into it. the second half got way better tho, it somehow caught me and i found joy in it (after a long break about 60 pages in lol).
worth a read, even though probably not the easiest? also, it's only 200 pages ;)
worth a read, even though probably not the easiest? also, it's only 200 pages ;)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, and Blood
bloomingbookworm's review against another edition
mysterious
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? No
2.0
Incredibly difficult to follow and understand. The war and two different sides are never explained. There is also no distinguishable differences between the two characters, writing style wise or even emotionally, which made it hard to remember which character’s point of view you were reading. You only get one brief physical description of one of the characters midway through the book, so I couldn’t even visualize the characters in my head. Adding half a star because I did enjoy some of the metaphors, however the purple prose didn’t make up for the lack of world building and character development. If you like ambiguity and books that are up to interpretation, you might enjoy this book, but it wasn’t for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War
page_rva's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Self harm, and Suicide
hirsute's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-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? Yes
4.75
I think the book is really well written, and technically it's a fantastic work. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, and am glad I did, but probably will not read it again.
I started the book listening to an audiobook version, and that way did not work for me. Because of the nature of the work, there are enough times where I did not have context to help me understand something that was said that I was left confused, frustrated, and feeling disconnected from the story. I think this is largely because in audiobook format, it's not easy to pause and review those parts and then resume. I wasn't able to reconnect well after those moments in the audiobook.
Reading it in print made it far easier for me to move at the pace I needed to move to really stay connected with the story, and I went from being frustated with my own indifference to the book to really enjoying it.
I started the book listening to an audiobook version, and that way did not work for me. Because of the nature of the work, there are enough times where I did not have context to help me understand something that was said that I was left confused, frustrated, and feeling disconnected from the story. I think this is largely because in audiobook format, it's not easy to pause and review those parts and then resume. I wasn't able to reconnect well after those moments in the audiobook.
Reading it in print made it far easier for me to move at the pace I needed to move to really stay connected with the story, and I went from being frustated with my own indifference to the book to really enjoying it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Blood, and War
Minor: Gore and Suicide
jayvdw's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-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
5.0
For the past 1,5 years, I have been improving my reading speed. Trying to read faster whilst following the story. This book made me want to slow down for the first time. At first, it was forced, by the complex writing and intriguing world. But quickly it became voluntary, I wanted to take in the beauty and complexity of the book. This book showed me that writing isn't only about reading a story, but simultaneously can be about the beauty of how the story is written. El-Mohtar and Gladstone are masters at their craft, I would not call them writers but wordsmiths. Using specific words to create a gorgeous tale of love, treachery, action, history, and politics.
There is so much to love about this book and the less one knows about it, besides its beauty the better. This book truly gave me a new perspective on books and writing.
This is how we win.
There is so much to love about this book and the less one knows about it, besides its beauty the better. This book truly gave me a new perspective on books and writing.
This is how we win.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Suicide, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture