Reviews with content warning for Rape - Blindness

Y I K E S.

Spoonies beware!
This book is terribly exhausting to read, and if you have trouble keeping your place when reading or have trouble reading long paragraphs, spare yourself the spoons and don't read this book. It's not worth it, I promise!

So this book begins with one man (with no name; nobody in this book has a name. They're referred to as "doctor", "the doctor's wife", "the boy with a squint", etc.) who suddenly sees only whiteness. This "blindness" spreads like a virus, and soon everybody has it. The Ministry tries to contain it at first, putting those affected into quarantine - in a mental asylum, no less.

Now, this book is written in an infuriating way that gets old after . . . say, 10 pages. There's almost no periods. Run-ons are everywhere. No quotation marks. No new paragraphs to differentiate who's saying what. No new sentences to differentiate who's saying what. I don't know about you, but that right there sounds like a dystopia. Again, spoonies beware! I have tired eyes and chronic fatigue, so I had to have a bookmark keep track of my reading line, or else there would be no way I could keep my place in this no-paragraph mess of meandering words.

It's also impossible to enjoy or at least become engaged by because it's so damn sexist and ableist!! The men had titles like "doctor", "the first blind man", etc., while the women had these: "first blind man's wife", "doctor's wife", etc. The narrator also had to tell the audience how surprising it was that the sex worker had good relations with her parents, given her career. ?? I don't even want to get into that right now.

There was also a scene that other reviewers here have talked about much more eloquently than I could - a scene so violently disgusting that I can't believe this book is so highly praised. It's a rape scene, where women line up and "volunteer" to be raped by some ruffians in exchange so that they and their husbands can get some food. Of course, this scene had to be described in such vivid detail that I'm 100% sure it was some sick thing the author put in to jack off to. I usually don't input such disgusting things into my reviews but in this case . . . it was that disgusting.

And the ableism! This man had to have hated blind people to such a degree I can't even fathom. Let this be a lesson to all: don't use disabilities as metaphors for whatever gross thing in humanity you want to point out! Just don't do it. Don't.

I can't even count the number of times the word "blind" was used to point out something terrible in humanity, or even so bluntly as just to point out how awful being blind was. That to be blind was to be dead, and vice versa. Let's find one quote though . . . here's one: "What is your name, Blind people do not need a name." Beautiful.

Not to mention, in the end

everyone regained their sight! Oh boy what an ending! This probably started the magical cure trope, I don't know. It's sure annoying in any case. The protagonists learned their lessons, so their "disability was cured"!

Amazing, give the book a prize!

This book was an awful reading experience. And so ableist I can't recommend it to anyone. Please read something by an actually blind author.

Content Warnings

xihe's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

2.0

I listened to the audiobook!
- Honestly? It is a fairly, maybe even inherently, ableist novel (a complicated discussion far beyond the scope of a bulleted review).
- It's pretty underwhelming as science fiction.
- The issues, plots, and sometimes the prose, felt far more simplistic than what I think (???) it was trying to convey.
- For me, it was somewhat more effective as entertainment than whatever it was attempting to masquerade as.
- I honesty don't see what about it hasn't already been done to death before it already, in a more compelling manner.
- Except perhaps the frank depiction of rape and sexual violence in a pandemic of this nature, though I felt this element deserved more weight and focus in the narrative given the extremely graphic depictions of gang rape we are subjected to. It's also bogged down by some sexism that shows up in the book (both objectification & slut-shaming, for instance).
- We now know it's probably not a realistic depiction of what would happen in a pandemic. I'm not convinced that was the main intention, but I think it probably was one of them.

Content Warnings

aritammarques's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.5

While I do not share the same feelings, or may I say, lack of faith, towards humanity on the edge of collapse I did find this book gripping and engaging.
As always I love Saramago's characteristic writing style were the dialogue seems to lull you with it's rhythm and where a focused and intuitive reader needs not many explanations to know who's talking or how the action is unfolding.
Maybe it's because I share the writer's nationality but he's novels era always imprinted with such a familiarity that sceneries don't need very much describing for me to be able to picture them in my mind. And the way he uses common sense phrases either in the dialogue or in the descriptions always makes me chuckle.

Content Warnings

princessxnicole's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

narabedla's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

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

0.25

É ruim dar review negativa, mas o livro não serve para mim. Motivos:
- Escrita ruim;
- Os personagens não têm nome, nem personalidade;
- As escolhas dos personagens não são boas. Havia soluções simples e mais naturais para os problemas enfrentados por eles;
- Diálogos separados por vírgula, difícil de ler;
- O enredo não é tão bom;
- Muitas cenas desnecessárias;
- Ritmo muito lento.

A estória é simples, mas sem sentido algum. Resumo:

Começa com uma doença que deixa as pessoas subitamente cegas. No meio é só anarquia. No fim, a doença se extingue subitamente e as pessoas têm a visão de volta.

Queria nunca ter lido aquela

cena de estupro repugnante

.

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This book is not well suited for me. My reasons:
- Poor writing;
- The characters are not named, neither they have personalities;
- Choices made by the characters are not good. There were simple and more natural solutions to the problems faced by them;
- Dialogues are separated by commas, which makes it difficult to read;
- Dialogues are meaningless;
- The plot is not good at all;
- Lots of unnecessary scenes;
- Very slow pace.

The story is simple but nonsense. Summary:

It begins with a disease suddenly making people blind. In the middle, there is total anarchy. In the end, the disease is suddenly over, and people can see again.

I wish I could've never read that

disgusting rape scene

Content Warnings

lisa334's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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