Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

12 reviews

juliahendrickson's review

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challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5


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larbster90's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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lemonflower's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? No

5.0


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iamnita's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book hooked me from the writing alone. The way in which Emily Mandel writes is just so beautiful you feel as though you're there, but you also appreciate how much work she put into setting all the scenes. While I anticipated I might get lost in the various points in time, and the POVs of various groups of characters, I found the way she wrote helped remind me who I was following. I never felt like I left characters too soon, or stayed with them too long. While the overall story is gripping, it's not shocking and can really be an easy read for someone who wants to explore a world in which 95% of the population is gone.
Lastly, the larger issues this story tackles are just beautiful. I find myself thinking back on this book often, and may do a re-read to highlight some of the beautiful passages and experience them again for their life lessons. Emily Mandel's notes after you're finished reading are just awesome.

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sheridanwaverly's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0


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maddiebusick's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I liked it overall, I wish the ending was stronger for the characters in year 20. It felt really tense and suspenseful for most of the book but the final scene with the prophet just didn’t do it for me for whatever reason, I think maybe it was slightly rushed. 

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

Only stuck with it to the end bc I found out there's going to be a limited tv series and I wanted to see why people think so highly of this book and I'm completely at a loss bc I DON'T GET IT. Easily one of the worst decisions I've made reading wise. It's got a huge Stephen King vibe except this book is so boring it's criminal! It's the end of the world through the eyes of privileged, first world middle-upper class people that I didn't give one f%ck about. (which is probably why this book and now many dystopias have me side eyeing them bc I read a tweet (can't find it anymore and don't remember the author:( some while ago that said dystopias are basically white and/or privileged people's fears of things to come that actually have been the reality for colonized, poor and disadvantaged Black and POC for hundreds of years. I honestly hadn't seen it that way and well now I'm having difficulty with these books especially with this one that was so bad!) It was aiming for some grand scale philosophical poignancy that I'm most likely too dumb to get or it was such a fail on the author's part bc this book is a colossal waste of time. I hated it.

The only parts I can't hate bc they were kinda decently done were Jeevan's subplot and the fallout of the pandemic which was so eerie to read right now. But everything else was atrocious. The characters are not interesting. They are flat and lifeless as hell I didn't care for any of them at all. The prophet thing was added to shit on religion only bc it didn't add much else and was easily dismissed like nothing. And what was that about referring to most of the characters by the instruments they play? The few ideas or subplots that might have flourished this book were lackadaisical and left incomplete. But what honestly bugged me the most was how improbable everything felt to me. Not the disease or whatever but the aftermath. This book basically treated humanity like unthinking husks who will just sit by and let everything rot and die bc “omg we no longer have twitter!!! How will we ever be able to communicate and thrive and live without it?!?!?” Which makes this book annoyingly very fiction and to me very unrealistic in the human ingenuity aspect and not what I signed up for. (ok so it didn't want to be a hopeful book for the most part but girl, humans are stubborn and really do think and create and recreate even the worst of people. Unless of course it was aiming at critiquing our dependence to technology and that we fell away from our hunting-gathering roots and capitalism has us f*cked up but I don't think that's what she was going for lol)

I thought I was gonna be in my feelings reading this, the characters and plot were gonna feel surreal bc hey! I'm in the middle of a pandemic too and well...Just not a good book for me. I honestly can't believe this is gonna have a tv adaptation. 

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alexeireads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

finished reading on august 26, 2021

i almost gave up on this book last year because i couldnt handle reading a book about a pandemic while i was living through one, but i finally picked it up again a week or two ago and im so fucking glad i did. instead of painfully reminding me that im currently living in a world ravaged by a pandemic, this book made me fall in love with the world; with humanity, with the compassion and serendipity and continuous need to *live* that exists in all of us—“because survival is insufficient.” what a beautiful, beautiful book.

 

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pastelkerstin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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butterfliesonmybookshelf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0


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