Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

20 reviews

kllyholt's review

dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

This was exquisite. 
The audiobook took a moment for me to get into because of all the changes in characters viewpoints and time jumps- but holy shit, it was worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Ableism

puntifexmaximus's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Rape, Alcohol, Body shaming, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, and Islamophobia

clairew97's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Bullying, Medical content, Pregnancy, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Blood, Homophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

jayisreading's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

2.0

Doerr was far too ambitious with this novel and bit off more than he could chew. I really wanted to like this one, especially as someone who enjoys sprawling novels with different plotlines and characters that all come together in a unique fashion. In addition, there was something akin to a love letter to books and environment that existed in this novel, which… yes, I also love. And then, there’s the fact that Doerr writes beautifully, and as someone who loves lyrical prose, you would think all these components would result in me singing about how wonderful of an experience it was to read Cloud Cuckoo Land.

It took me a little over a month to get through this tome, which I thought was at least 300 pages too long. As much as I love beautiful writing, I need things to happen to really appreciate that beautiful writing. When things happened in Cloud Cuckoo Land, it was wonderful. Other times, though, it made reading feel like an absolute chore. I felt like there was a little too much self-indulgent writing that was happening. Relatedly, Doerr barely—and I cannot emphasize “barely” enough—pulled off the intertwining stories at the end. Each timeline and their respective plotlines had their flaws, but I thought the one that took place in the present was by far the strongest and most interesting. The plotlines that took place in the past were somewhat engaging but not all that interesting. Meanwhile, the plotline that took place in the future was interesting but not at all engaging. (This is to say, Doerr should not venture into sci-fi writing, because I don’t think he would be very good at it.) All of them had beautiful writing, but your mileage varied on how much impact any of it had on the story (raising the question, what actually was the story). And, speaking of impact, I found the codex excerpts at the start of chapters rather tiring after a while. It didn’t leave much of an impression on me, especially because it rarely tied to the actual chapter content.

Something else to scrutinize about this book is how an autistic character is represented. While it is not explicitly stated by Doerr that Seymour is autistic (and I don’t know why he shied away from this…), the fact that he is vilified and turned into a bit of a "troubled child” caricature left a bad taste in my mouth.

This is making me realize that I may have to revisit All the Light We Cannot See, which I enjoyed when I read it way back when. I wonder if something changed or it just ended up that Cloud Cuckoo Land was a miss. Whatever the reason, I just know I won’t be getting many hours back that was spent reading this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Death, Violence, Confinement, and Ableism

Moderate: Bullying and Animal cruelty

Minor: Rape and Homophobia

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, War, Mass/school shootings, Death, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Ableism and Bullying

dgirardot's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This book is the literary equivalent of that person from high school who was skilled at everything—sports, academics, everything—and you desperately wanted them to just fail at something. In this case, Cloud Cuckoo Land has a lot of great attributes, but the whole ends up being less than the sum of its parts. It it’s original, and yet it feels predictable in the grain its storylines follow.

Some thoughts:

• Doerr is skilled at crafting beautiful sentences.
• The environmentalist message of the book, while laudable, ends up coming across preachy, and the lack of resolution about that part of the book doesn’t work well with the rest.
• Doerr is absolutely abominable at writing dialogue for children, and he should never attempt to do so again for as long as he lives. I’m surprised he didn’t have a fifth grader say “Rad!,” though he certainly came close.
• The conceit of using the fictionalized “Cloud Cuckoo Land” ancient text quickly gets old. It really doesn’t read like an ancient text at all, and it often doesn’t have any bearing on the main plot for each given chapter — and if it does, it’s by hitting the reader over the head.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic and Gun violence

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

 Really, truly, spectacular. This is such a beautiful interwoven story spun across multiple lifetimes. It was delightful to see how each life connected with the other. Each character feels tangible and real, they all have so much depth and personality. Each plot-line is gripping and it is impossible to not feel for the characters. Seymour especially, I think, is beautifully written. His mental illness is incredibly accurately done, and he is never once demonized for it. Each character, despite their actions, kind or otherwise, is written and treated with respect and empathy. It's such a beautiful tale of humanity and kindness and struggle, and all of it is portrayed with such well researched nuance and intelligence. Definitely one of the best books if you want to feel something that is neither fully happy nor sad, but a cathartic combination of both. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Violence, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Body shaming, Death of parent, War, Gun violence, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Slavery, Alcohol, Dementia, Drug use, and Excrement

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-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

5.0

i liked “All The Light Wr Cannot See,” but i loved this book. i don’t think i’ll ever be able to stop talking about it. i just finished it and i already want to read it again. the themes are so complex and so present in the story. the characters lives and journeys connect and diverge thematically in such interesting ways. truly a timeless tale that should be among the modern classics of literature if it isn’t already. it reads so cohesively even as your journey through time and space and POVs. if you can’t love this book, i truly am sorry for you. such a joy to read. i would recommend to literally anyone, anywhere, anytime. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death, Islamophobia, Slavery, War, Violence, Ableism, Suicide, and Terminal illness

betsygrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I see why this won awards! It was a little slow for me at first but once the action picked up, I was hooked! I could never have imagined these stories intertwining the way that they did. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Hate crime, Medical content, Gun violence, and War

monroebays's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

A book about finding hope in the darkest circumstances. Loveable characters, historical fiction and speculative fiction living side-by-side. You will laugh, you will cry, you will google politics of 15th century Constantinople. You need to read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Homophobia, War, and Vomit

Minor: Torture and Xenophobia