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sarahschwehn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Pedophilia, Grief, Torture, and Trafficking
Minor: Slavery, Vomit, War, Violence, Abandonment, Cancer, Genocide, Gun violence, and Infertility
cloud_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Rape, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Murder, Vomit, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug use, and Kidnapping
Minor: Pregnancy
chelseaterrisscott's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Violence
reenelou's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
4.5
I wanted it to be more gorey.
There was so much exposition at the begining and it felt like the last part of the book was rushed, the horror element was more implied than gratuitous and gd I wanted to witness the true horror of the surgery, hasta'akala, emillo underwent.
There was so much exposition at the begining and it felt like the last part of the book was rushed, the horror element was more implied than gratuitous and gd I wanted to witness the true horror of the surgery, hasta'akala, emillo underwent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Mental illness, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Blood, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Animal death, and Torture
mdiffer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I should hate this book. Yet I couldn't put it down near the end.
A heartbreaking nightmare that was deeply terrifying to me in unexpected ways. It's about all the ways that "first contact" with alien cultures could go wrong. Intercultural misunderstandings and cultural contamination. But it's also about a Catholic Jesuit finding his god and absolution through a horrible experience.
It was almost cathartic to finish. I'm shooketh.
Kudos to author Mary Doria Russell for writing this horror masterpiece-- you almost scared 'god' into this atheist.
A heartbreaking nightmare that was deeply terrifying to me in unexpected ways. It's about all the ways that "first contact" with alien cultures could go wrong. Intercultural misunderstandings and cultural contamination. But it's also about a Catholic Jesuit finding his god and absolution through a horrible experience.
It was almost cathartic to finish. I'm shooketh.
Kudos to author Mary Doria Russell for writing this horror masterpiece-- you almost scared 'god' into this atheist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Sexual violence, and Rape
Moderate: Violence, Mental illness, Ableism, and Slavery
Minor: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
hannah_g44's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Child death, and Cannibalism
ericaburns1's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
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
My favorite book. I think about it all the time. DW Yarbrough is my best friend. ”the Good Lord decided to make DW Yarbrough a Catholic, a liberal, ugly and gay and a fair poet, and then had him born in Waco, Texas. Now I ask you, is the work a serious Deity?” the greatest sentence written in all of literature. BUT THE SPARROW STILL FALLS. I think about that all the time. This book has shaped me. It is horrific, moving, funny, devastating. Religious tones and discussions but done from all sorts of perspectives: catholic, jewish, agnostic, atheistic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Sexual violence, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Blood, Cannibalism, Violence, Rape, and Suicide
jeanbpdx'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
4.5
Slow to start, but worth sticking with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Torture, Rape, and Child death
Minor: Xenophobia
politizer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Very interesting take on first contact sci-fi. As the book jumps back and forth between timelines, you start from the very first page knowing that this contact ended in tragedy, but spend the rest of the book trying/waiting to learn the details of what happened.
The beginning is slow going. The first third of the book is just getting to know the characters, and the middle third is getting to the planet, which means that you're 1/3 of the way through the book before you start getting spacey stuff and very far into the book before you're meeting aliens. The actual events around which the whole book hinges aren't made clear until the final few pages. I understand why the long setup was necessary -- you need to love the characters in order to feel something when they all die tragically, and Russell successfully accomplishes that. It just made it hard for me to get into the book early on.
The actual misunderstanding that happens on Rakhat is very unique and well set-up, and telegraphed in a way that doesn't give everything away too early but that allows you to look back later and realize the clues were there. It's excellently done.
---
My main beef with the book is how the mystery plays out. There's very little in-universe reason why the details of the events should be withheld from the reader for the whole book.
To explain this beef better, I need to clarify that there are two mysteries in the novel: the mystery of what everyone thinks happened on Rakhat, and the mystery of what actually happened. At the outset, the reader doesn't know either; we just know that Emilio Sandoz returned to Earth from Rakhat and that there had been a tragedy and that he had done something very bad. About halfway through the book, we finally get an explanation of that mystery; Emilio is brought before a sort of inquest which spells out what the allegations are. But there's no reason why we should have to wait that long; all the characters from whose perspectives these chapters are told are characters who already know all this stuff, so it seems like it was hidden from the reader [even though all the characters know it] just to keep us turning the pages.
That's the first mystery. At the same time this one is wrapped up, the book also reveals that what really happened is more complicated than that. That one isn't resolved until the end of the book, when Emilio finally opens up about what happened. In this case, there is an in-universe reason why this information is being withheld from the reader -- Emilio is the only person who knows it, and he's dealing with multiple kinds of emotional trauma that are preventing him from being ready to speak out about it. But in the end, he does eventually spill his beans, and it didn't really feel earned to me; I can't really identify what the turning point was or what in the story justifies his being ready to talk now when he wasn't earlier. It felt more like it just had to happen because the book was nearing the end.
So the upshot of these two things is that I felt a bit cheated or played with, both when the book withheld information from me and when it gave information to me.
The beginning is slow going. The first third of the book is just getting to know the characters, and the middle third is getting to the planet, which means that you're 1/3 of the way through the book before you start getting spacey stuff and very far into the book before you're meeting aliens. The actual events around which the whole book hinges aren't made clear until the final few pages. I understand why the long setup was necessary -- you need to love the characters in order to feel something when they all die tragically, and Russell successfully accomplishes that. It just made it hard for me to get into the book early on.
The actual misunderstanding that happens on Rakhat is very unique and well set-up, and telegraphed in a way that doesn't give everything away too early but that allows you to look back later and realize the clues were there. It's excellently done.
---
My main beef with the book is how the mystery plays out. There's very little in-universe reason why the details of the events should be withheld from the reader for the whole book.
To explain this beef better, I need to clarify that there are two mysteries in the novel: the mystery of what everyone thinks happened on Rakhat, and the mystery of what actually happened. At the outset, the reader doesn't know either; we just know that Emilio Sandoz returned to Earth from Rakhat and that there had been a tragedy and that he had done something very bad. About halfway through the book, we finally get an explanation of that mystery; Emilio is brought before a sort of inquest which spells out what the allegations are. But there's no reason why we should have to wait that long; all the characters from whose perspectives these chapters are told are characters who already know all this stuff, so it seems like it was hidden from the reader [even though all the characters know it] just to keep us turning the pages.
That's the first mystery. At the same time this one is wrapped up, the book also reveals that what really happened is more complicated than that. That one isn't resolved until the end of the book, when Emilio finally opens up about what happened. In this case, there is an in-universe reason why this information is being withheld from the reader -- Emilio is the only person who knows it, and he's dealing with multiple kinds of emotional trauma that are preventing him from being ready to speak out about it. But in the end, he does eventually spill his beans, and it didn't really feel earned to me; I can't really identify what the turning point was or what in the story justifies his being ready to talk now when he wasn't earlier. It felt more like it just had to happen because the book was nearing the end.
So the upshot of these two things is that I felt a bit cheated or played with, both when the book withheld information from me and when it gave information to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence
Moderate: Violence
sincetheflood's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
5.0
holy fuck. holy fucking shit. easily one of the best books i've ever read and also one of the hardest to get through. especially those last 50 pages. good fucking lord
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Vomit, Rape, and Death
Moderate: Colonisation, Violence, Child death, and Cannibalism
Minor: Pregnancy