Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - Cloud Atlas

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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

8 reviews

asolis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.0

Little library find. Six stories nested within each other - you pass halfway through each until you reach the center and work your way back through each second half in reverse order. While the stories are clearly linked together, I expected a stronger connection to reveal itself over time.

I admit most of them took a minute to get into and I almost quit the whole book about 5 pages in. But once you get the hang of each story's dialect it draws you in hard.

A lot of racism and I often wondered whether it was for effect, "historical accuracy," or why it was necessary. But ultimately it contributes to the overall track towards anticapitalism and environmentalism, a warning against white supremacy and the havoc it has and will wreak upon our planet and its people.

I was pleased to benefit from my recent reading of Brave New World and 1984, which are especially referenced in the 5th story.

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szaszann's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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artmuseam's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

this is probably one of the most confusing but extraordinary books i’ve ever come across. first, i particularly enjoyed the ways in which different storylines from various timelines all connected together through “easter eggs”, but i didn’t entirely understand the significance of how each storyline was connected to each other. i also didn’t like the storyline occurring in the middle. perhaps this is just me being uptight on my end, but when i read something that is difficult to decipher and takes a while to actually understand what the convoluted words are saying, i lose motivation to read on. in fact, i had to skim through that entire part just for the sake of finishing the story and seeing what happens in the end. i will say, however, that the other storylines were quite thrilling and kept me at the edge of my seat. when i noticed those easter eggs, i grew excited and wanted to find the significance—only to realize there wasn’t really one (unless i misread, or just completely skipped over it?) the concept itself was very interesting and the different writing styles (aside from the middle one) created a lively and visceral setting for the entire book. who knows, maybe i will have to give this a reread in the future to actually grasp it. this was definitely a confusing, thought provoking, and disoriented read that i weirdly enjoyed. 4.5/5 stars

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marissasa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

Cloud Atlas is a long, sweeping narrative with each chapter about a different person who is a reincarnation of the previous chapter's main character and the ways they are all interconnected despite existing in different eras experiencing wildly different situations. The theory was very cool to me and I was intrigued by the way that the book doesn't spell out any of the world-building sci-fi elements clearly, leaving the whole reincarnation idea up to interpretation for the most part. However, out of the 6 main characters, 4 were white men whose stories really paled in comparison to the 2 women's chapters. Luisa and especially Sonmi-451 carried this book in my opinion. While their chapters were engaging, action-packed, and full of social commentary, I felt the other chapters dragged on and were far less memorable. I even felt like the first character we were introduced to was by far the least interesting, which made it tough to read since his chapters were the very first one and the last one. Although I liked the premise I just wanted more in the execution from this book.

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