Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

5 reviews

aisclaradm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-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? Yes

3.75

A great book about music, drugs, love, grief, but mainly about youth, and about how difficult it can be to find yourself and your identity as a young person. It was so immersive and engaging, and even though at times it felt fan-fictionesque because of interactions with real artists of the time, this added a lot to a nostalgic feel for a decade I haven’t even experienced. Some plot lines were brilliant and completely unexpected,

such as the discovery that Jasper’s schizophrenia was actually due to a very real supernatural entity lodged in his mind,

and I really really loved these arcs, though I wish they had had more of a central role in the story. The ending was a bit of a gut-punch, 

and Dean’s death, right after having had his numerous epiphanies about life, disappointed me hugely,

but I suppose it had the intended effect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Genocide, and War

rworrall78's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective slow-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

I listened to this as an  audiobook and I really didn't get on with the narrators voice to start it sounded really smarmy. But the narrator did a pretty amazing job doing all the many, many accents. 
The characters were well set up, quickly which is often a challenge when you're telling a story from multiple viewpoints. I came to really love the characters and the invested in what was happening to them. 
I was listening to something recently saying how it's really difficult to represent either sport or music in fiction. And I think it's pretty much impossible to describe musical things without it being a little bit cringy. The celebrity cameos were a bit ridiculous too, and as others have said they take you out the story, but equally I think they were done as well as those kind of things can be. And how else can you tell the story of the late 1960s music scene without having those characters appear? 
I definitely enjoyed the human stories of the main characters more than the party scenes or even the gigs scenes. 
I didn't love the dream scenes at all and I'm sure they were more symbolic than I realized. But I think Jasper's story was very cleverly done.
As with all writing that is very long and tells the story in almost slower than real time, I always wonder whether that level of detail was necessary, but when it's well done I begin to find myself reveling in it and I did with this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, and Violence

jordangddrd's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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? Yes

4.25

I loved almost every part of this book, and the fresh take on a classic rock band where the members don't all hate each other's guts really compelled me to finish this book more than other similar recent releases. <The ending was Stand By Me levels of shocking and heartbreaking.> That being said, the descriptions and roles of POC characters in this book didn't meet the standards I would expect from a book written in 2020. Also, the dialogue from American characters but especially <Janis Joplin> (who was from Texas) felt to me like David Mitchell has maybe never had a conversation with an American person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Car accident, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, and Antisemitism

itsanoctopus's review against another edition

I kept waiting for the plot to advance to some crescendo or get more interesting, but it continued to just be a mishmash of 60’s music industry tropes with forced quotable “morales”. Easily my least favorite entry of Mitchell’s. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, and Violence

jomarchkinnie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, and Grief