Reviews tagging 'Miscarriage'

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

2 reviews

akvolcano's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.5

 Honestly it just feels like the author put all the drafts together and made a book out of it. It feels like it’s the same story rewritten over and over again, with slight changes. Wouldn’t recommend reading. The book itself is an interesting concept, but it was not executed well at all.

When I read that the main character has multiple lives, I was excited! But the character doesn’t remember their past lives. And recantation is mentioned twice in the book, but both times are offhand and not really a big deal/significance. Pretty disappointed. I also couldn’t find any of the characters to be lovable, it feels like I barely knew them. Also-idk if it was just me, but the amount of graphic violence and/or uncomfortable topics was completely unnecessary  to the story line. Perhaps two or three would have been consumable, but dang not this much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cultural appropriation, Miscarriage, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Antisemitism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Racism, Classism, Domestic abuse, War, Genocide, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Ableism, Colonisation, and Pregnancy

sauvageloup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

A very compelling, if strange, book

pros:
- the prose and imagery is definitely it's strongest point. as one of the reviewers says, the scenes from the blitz in London are very vivid in my mind, as well as Ursula's awful time in london. and made me realise how truly awful it was for everyone - anyone who compares covid to the world wars has no idea. 
- the characters were also wonderfully done, they were all imperfect but well rounded and unique, especially Sylvie, Ursula herself and the rest of the family. 
- the idea itself is brilliant, and very well executed, with Ursula's slow realisation of what was happening and how the plots all came together. 
- though many references went over my head, I did enjoy the classical and cultural nods where I recognised them. 

cons:
-there were a lot of characters and storylines and it was confusing at times, especially because I had a break in the middle. but that added the palimpsest it was creating. 
- I found the ending strange and unpoignant, though Atkinson's note at the end helped with this. 

overall, very vivid and moving and I want to read more books by her in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Abortion, Grief, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Gore, War, Violence, Suicide, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Rape