Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

32 reviews

sandramarinis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow! One of the best books I've ever read. The amount of planning it takes to make this storyline make sense is incredible. I LOVED HER WRITING STYLE. It made me reflect a lot about my own existence and fear of the world ending and of technological development.

This book intertwines timelines in a seamless way that leaves you feeling like a detective trying to understand the order of all the events. It has amazing build up and will give you shivers when the storylines connect. The author writes in such a way that makes you really understand the time and place surrounding the characters who live within them.

My favorite quotes:

1. "My personal belief is that we turn to postapocalyptic fiction not because we're drawn to disaster, per se, but because we're drawn to what we imagine might come next. We long secretly for a world with less technology in it." (page 191). This hit so hard and also felt like the author was breaking the fourth wall.
 
2. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we're living at the climax of the story. It's a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we're uniquely important, that we're living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it's ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world." (page 189).

The moon colonies freaked me out. It sounded so incredibly sad to live in a technological reality instead of earth. Especially with the fake sky and fake weather within the dome.

I also found it heartbreaking that Olive kept thinking about the fact that she was supposed to die in the pandemic. The whole part where she left earth convinced that she had been warned of her upcoming death, and then her husband doubted her sanity, was SUCH GOOD WRITING. It was so exciting!!! I was like 😮😮😮!

Gaspery pretending to follow the rules from the time Institute, just to do the opposite had me like 👀😬😅 Gaspery is such a thrill seeker and clearly couldn't let his curiosity be unexplored

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

genorgana's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence and Colonisation

Minor: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

purplatypus's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Grief, and Medical content

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, and Gun violence

pacifickat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

*review pending*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Grief

Minor: Mental illness and Alcohol

Child neglect, memory problems, hallucinations, difficulty discerning reality

kirstyreads's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

Found it a bit slow to get into. 
The writing and the characterization is so good that even though you're only with each of the initial characters for a short period of time (time both in terms of chapters, and time in terms of a very short period of their lives), you care for them and get a sense of who they are. Loved the writing style. Loved how everything came together at the end. 

The only thing I want from this book is more

more details about the colonies, how the time travel works, more about the time institute, more about the characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide and Violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

the emotional impact of the pandemic is discussed in detail and while it's not covid19 in the novel, the novel was written during covid19 so it's very evocative of this time period

novella42's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide

pearlisarobot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Classism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Confinement, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jpw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.0

Contact meets Piranesi in this fascinating puzzle box of speculative science fiction. It's a joy to watch the layers revealed as it unfolds across different eras

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: War, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

heather_harrison's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

Recommend if you want: 
* Slow burn plot
* Interconnected characters 
* Time travel 
* Processing the pandemic experience 
* Meta science fiction 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Forced institutionalization, War, Death, and Abandonment