Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

14 reviews

purplatypus's review against another edition

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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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maeverose's review against another edition

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4.0

This took a long time - about half the book - to grow on me. Up to that point it was very ‘meh’. But then once the stronger sci-fi elements came in I didn’t want to put it down, and the first half became more interesting in hindsight.

I don’t want to say too much, I think it’s better to go into it not knowing much. If you like sci fi stories that involve a mystery but mainly focus on characters, their relationships, and mundane aspects of people’s lives, I would recommend. I found the writing style very easy to read as well, not confusing or difficult as sci-fi books can be for me sometimes, especially with my adhd brain.

The main content warning I would give for this, in the least spoilery way possible: it involves questioning reality. I didn’t personally feel like it was done in a triggering way. It doesn’t dwell on it too much. But if that’s an especially triggering topic for you then that’s something to keep in mind. The spoiler version:
It’s a ‘life is a simulation’ situation. It’s never fully confirmed in the book that this is the case, but it’s strongly suggested.

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bloomingpear's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense 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

4.25


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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective 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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book! The author’s writing is really captivating and I loved how all the storylines connected. This was strange sci fi but in a more approachable way than other strange sci fi novels (ex. Annihilation). I also really like the things that I reflected on as the reader and the things that the characters learned through their experiences. I just wish I had more of everything this novel has! More character depth for some of the characters that were skimped out on and more details about the impacts of time travel would have made this perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time I listened to this book.

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sramac's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.25


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novella42's review against another edition

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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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norwegianforestreader's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0


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summerb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective 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

4.25


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sorcha's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


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miller8d's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Emily St. John Mandel is the only author I’ve ever read as an adult whose writing is effortlessly legible— I don’t have to drag myself through the continuation of the logic, the story, the names and details. She is an incredible world-builder and crafts her books in a way that kindly takes all pressure off the reader to painstakingly translate the story as they go, and she does it without losing the substance nor the sophisticated chaos of the story. She includes unnecessary yet enriching details everywhere so that you never quite catch on to the endings (unlike so many stories that make me think “Oh, well, that must be foreshadowing something”). I had a complicated
feeling of disappointment at the ending of the story: I was pulled to finish this book in two days because I was so excited to learn the explanation for the anomaly, and when I turned the final page, I said “Oh, come on” out loud because I did not feel like I got one at all in the moment. I found the twist exciting and sweet and logical but emotionally frustrating at first. But since I completed the book twenty minutes ago, I’ve realized I’m not actually disappointed because that is actually the most natural and truthful ending there ever could have been, and it rings true to the entire story, to the nature of time and space and boring explanations for exciting anomalies. It shines light on the entire hero’s journey and disarms us with a lonely sense of naked responsibility over the choices we make and especially over the universally lackluster inevitability of the logical consequences of the choices we make. I also really love how Mandel softly infused a strong clarity of anti-colonization and anti-cop sanity throughout the actions and beliefs of the lovable characters— refreshing to read a sci-fi/fictional/apocalyptic piece that doesn’t bury the lead of what evils are obviously leading us toward the darkness (colonization and cops, etc.), and refreshing to read any fictional book that pursues a leftist narrative through world-building and plot points, instead of just veering recklessly into harmful tokenization, superimposed racial dynamics written by a white author, and so on. I also just realized I liked the red herring of Vincent falling off into the sea— at the time, I was 100% sure she’d been teleported by the anomaly and that we must meet her later on. Fun to think that perhaps she did teleport somehow but that we’ll never know because Gaspery never knows.
I loved this book. 
Note: I pictured Gaspery as Jacob Wysocki from College Humor.

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