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vessel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This book was very interesting, though for me, a bit hard to get into. My personal issue was that due to attention problems, I found the protagonist's voice extremely difficult to read at times, since he tends to capitalize every word he finds important. This is excellent characterization, and I do not wish it was different, but it made getting into the groove more challenging for me.
It's a beautiful, achingly human story. I recommend borrowing or getting a physical copy if at all possible, because when the connections started connecting, I really wanted to flip back to look at stuff that was going on 50 pages ago in a new light, which was difficult with a digital copy. It's a lot of fun watching the mystery unfold.
Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief
Minor: Murder, Fatphobia, and Blood
lonelylooper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Dementia, Confinement, and Mental illness
Moderate: Murder, Slavery, Death, Homophobia, and Gun violence
Minor: Fatphobia, Deadnaming, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Cursing
cherryboo's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
1.75
The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and I only finished it to read more of the lovely prose.
However, a fair warning to everyone ahead of time, this book, through the lens of Christianity, supports so so many problematic beliefs that make it so I would struggle to recommend this book to someone else.
Susanna unacceptably vilifies gay men, and explicitly writes that being gay is and was a choice, with the main conflict within the story being about how said "villainous" gay man kidnapped young men to abuse them for his experiments which is a disgusting trope that has time and time again been proven to be an exaggerated claim used for scaremongering tactics.
In addition, Clarke uses the aesthetics of Greco-Roman culture which is revered within the West but inserts heavy-handed unabashed support of Christian themes in order to conflate their relationship. This not only creates additional justification for Christianity's beliefs by elevating it to the status of reverence that is held for the former, but also erases the fact that the Romans were actually extremely opposed to Christianity.
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I'm not saying that this book is inherently or objectively bad; it's actually still really really good which is why I finished it. But I believe that denying the fact that there are problematic elements to the book would be extremely ignorant as well.
Graphic: Homophobia and Fatphobia
ayoderable's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Slavery
Minor: Child death, Death, Vomit, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Murder, and Suicide
fraxisle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Kidnapping
Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Sexual assault, Child death, Abandonment, Fatphobia, and Violence
taleofabibliophile's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.25
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Cursing
Minor: Excrement, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Slavery, and Vomit
ayamaro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Kidnapping and Confinement
Moderate: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Death, Drug use, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
Minor: Fatphobia
tulilipz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Gun violence, Murder, and Death
Minor: Fatphobia and Vomit
jakobvongunten's review against another edition
3.5
Minor: Homophobia and Fatphobia
raspberry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Minor: Fatphobia