Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - Great Circle

I need to put an indefinite pause on reading non-genre adult fiction by mainstream authors from mainstream publishers. Even the most reputedly "groundbreaking" among them have a resigned conventionality that just... exhausts me, and much of their so-called novelty is authors retreading old ground while trying to one-up each other in how "edgy" they can be.

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redporchinverter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective 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? Yes

3.5

Great Circle didn't exactly provide the rip-roaring adventure yarn I was looking for (I keep accidentally reading books with pedophilia), though it certainly has lift whenever Marian's in the cockpit. The ending left me unsatisfied in a way I can't quite put my finger on, but Maggie Shipstead is so skilled at conveying the allure and terror of being unmoored, of oblivion as both self-destruction and self-liberation that perhaps a more cathartic bang of a conclusion would've felt like a betrayal. I would've read a whole book just focused on Marian, Ruth and Eddie in World War II-era England.

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kmuttschall's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

"Until she dies, she will wonder if she could have persuaded him to come with her. Until she dies, she will remember Eddie's small, dark figure on the ice, waving to her with both arms as she circles up. She will always be afraid that his valedictory gesture might have changed, at some moment when she was too far away to notice, into a plea for her to return."

"She supposes there will be nothing. She supposes each of us destroys the world. We close our eyes and snuff out all that has existed, all that will ever be. But if she could choose, she would ask for a lift. She would want to rise from her body and have it be like when she'd first gone up with Trout, as though she were being held aloft by pure possibility, as though she were about to see everything."

This book is a combination of all of my favourite books (Milkman, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, East of Eden) while still managing to be its own distinct entity.

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charlieadams03's review against another edition

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Didn’t read into the triggers before I began reading it! Felt almost mis-sold this book due to the description of the book.

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honeybeeville's review against another edition

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I don’t think was able to include all the triggers I encountered in the first 17% of the book that I did finish. I’m including some specifics below behind spoilers. It’s really unfortunate the directions this book ends up going as the premise is very interesting and could have been explored in a different way.

I had to stop when the book seemed to sexualize a child along with other issues. Very early on, child sexual abuse and the resulting effects of this trauma are described in some detail. I’m not sure why this needed to be included outside of creating a sense of difficulty around the birth of one of the main characters. I persevered after this though it did not feel like it was handled well. Then we come to the main character who is 12 or 13 and being described as very interested in sexual activity to the point of masturbartion being mentioned with an adult man being referenced. That is a hard no for me. Nearly immediately after, a side character/story were mentioned that felt unrelated and also did not seem to be handled well by the author.

After this, I didn’t care what happened next. There was no way I was reading further.

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toothpastefairy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Screaming, crying, and throwing-up throughout.

Marian is someone who you desperately want to hug and throttle at the same time. Devastating and heartwarming, the novel's end is poignantly built in a way you could not predict from the start. Each character is crafted with care and depth, their lives reach across the pages to brush each other and arrest the reader's heart.

Overall, brutal and tender.

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