Reviews tagging 'Murder'

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

102 reviews

smkelly1997's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Overall, I felt this book was written beautifully. The prose, word choice, flow, and quick chapters left me throughly engaged. Regarding the actual story I felt as if I needed more. I just felt like something was missing to the the whole book together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, War, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, and Genocide

amalielisabeth's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, Rape, and War

em_gauts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Gore, War, Death, Child death, Gun violence, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

Another book club read, and I'm glad I was put onto this one, as I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with it. This is a beautifully woven tale of .. uhm, nerds in World War II.

Werner is a snow-haired German lad who was orphanned by the mines of the Reich. As a curious child he develops himself into an electrical engineer who specializes in fixing radios, and is noticed by a German general who forwards him for advancement in an elite military school.
Marie-Laure is the daughter of keymaster of the French museum. She develops cataracts and goes blind as a child, and her father crates a scale model of her neighbourhood as a tactile map for her to learn her way around.
When the war starts, Marie-Laure and her father flee to her uncle's house, and Werner is a radio engineer for Hitler's army.

This story is told with deep emotional resonance, and using all sorts of literary quirks that focus on themes of light and darkness, sounds, sensation, fear and bravery, morality, logic and puzzles, knowing and learning, art and music, the love of nature, and of people. I love the descriptions of things like disappearing in fog– that it's about vanishing into whiteness rather than shadows.  The descriptions are visceral and evocative as well as clever.

This is a story of survival, of war, of fear and bloodshed, and it doesn't pull its punches. It certainly answers, in a humane way, questions about how people can do inhuman things in war, and the toll it can take on families.

I found the going slow, and occasionally tense, but also full of whimsy and beauty in contrast.
Well worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Grief, War, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Excrement, Death, Child death, Blood, Antisemitism, Vomit, Torture, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Cancer, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racism, Confinement, Chronic illness, Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Classism, and Bullying

lwelch94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Violence, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Hate crime, Genocide, Ableism, Xenophobia, War, Antisemitism, Bullying, Rape, Mental illness, Confinement, and Death

tuvrok's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Gore, Antisemitism, Suicide, Ableism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Violence, War, and Murder

mrbean's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A lengthy narrative that is as equally intricate as it is cinematic, All the Light We Cannot See dazzles with its purple prose despite having a predictable plot and lacklustre character development. Doerr crafts a realistic atmosphere that is exquisitely picturesque with beautiful writing yet suffers tremendously from verbosity and superfluous descriptors that might detract readers from enjoying the already elaborate, convoluted plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Bullying, Murder, Antisemitism, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Blood

jlearnwriter's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, War, and Violence

Moderate: Violence, War, Sexual assault, Racism, Murder, Confinement, Bullying, Death, Torture, Grief, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Sexual violence, Rape, Racial slurs, and Police brutality

sophiatree3's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

senpai_no_lie's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book's ending wasn't satisfying to me because it was sad in a way that was like "a war happened. No one is allowed to have a truly happy ending or completely heal because that's just reality", and that doesn't necessarily resonate with me. I felt the timeskips make the beginning of the book a bit confusing. I think it was a good book, but I didn't necessarily enjoy it.

I felt Jutta and the girls being raped in one of the last chapters was an unnecessary addition. I understand women after often brutalized in war and raped but that doesn't mean a chapter where it happens needs to be tacked on if it's not really properly explored or expressed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Antisemitism, Bullying, Murder, Child death, Death, Gun violence, and War