Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

44 reviews

juniperbranches's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

‘Sometimes the things we think are lost are only hidden, waiting to be rediscovered’

Before I was even finished this book I knew it was going to be one of my favourite books of 2023. This gorgeous novel weaves three stories together in a deftly written love letter to libraries. Zeno Ninis is a Korean War veteran staging a showing of an Ancient Greek play ‘Cloud Cuckoo’ Land by children in 2020, a play once thought lost to the centuries. Konstance lives about a massive space ark in the not so distant future, hurtling toward a new, clean planet on a journey so long that none of the colonists will live long enough to see with their own eyes. Finally, Omeir and Anna are two youths on opposite sides of the great walls of Constantinople in the fifteenth century, as the city is being overtaken by the Saracens. 

All three of these stories revolve around one, lost, Greek text of a Shepard on a journey around the world. Somehow none of these stories is muddled, despite frequent jumps in perspective, and the result is one of the most impactful stories I’ve ever read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Confinement, and Mental illness

Minor: Gun violence

ajsterkel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful reflective sad tense 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

This is a bizarre book. I loved it, but I'm not sure how to talk about it. It's the kind of story I just want to shove into everybody's hands.

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a story about stories. It's a love letter to books and libraries. It shows how stories are passed down through generations and give us the courage to keep moving.

At the center of the novel is an ancient myth called "Cloud Cuckoo Land." Other stories branch off from that myth like spokes. In 1453 Constantinople, a farmer and a seamstress are trapped on opposite sides of the city wall during a war. In 2020 Idaho, an elderly librarian is directing a play when a teenager on a deadly mission walks into his library. Sometime in the future, a young girl is alone on a spaceship and searching for a new home for humanity.

I know that sounds confusing, but the stories actually work together beautifully because the author is great at juggling multiple points-of-view. I was equally invested in each story. It's amazing how real the characters feel. Their kindness and willingness to take risks really shines through.

This book is confusing at first because there are a lot of characters, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Once I got invested in the characters, I couldn't put the book down. I love the way the stories converge at the end. It took a lot of skill to write this novel. I suspect it'll be one of my favorites of the year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War, Confinement, and Animal cruelty

franklola's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, and Confinement

Moderate: Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Violence, Rape, War, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death

juksu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

Moderate: Pregnancy, War, and Chronic illness

gvj1910's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, War, Violence, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Confinement

Minor: Bullying

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Confinement, Gun violence, Medical content, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Bullying

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I will say, it had a slow start, and it took me a good 100 pages or maybe a little more to feel drawn in. But once it had me it had me. I tend to like stories that are a bit more character driven, whereas this book was definitely more driven by plot. However, I like to rate on author’s intent rather than my personal preferences.

An interwoven tale of various people taking place over the course of 700 years, the one thing connecting them is a book, surviving against the odds through the ages. In many ways an ode to storytelling itself, I found especially the back half to be deeply moving and effective at showing us how stories shape the trajectories of our lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Mental illness, Violence, War, Classism, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, and Panic attacks/disorders

nora_knight's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

This book is a beautiful ode to stories, books and libraries. It connects the very human lives of characters scattered across time with a simple story that survived all odds to be told again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, and Mass/school shootings

voilajean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, War, Chronic illness, Mass/school shootings, and Confinement

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Antisemitism and Death of parent

youreawizardjerry's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.0

SO engaging and entertaining! A journey that keeps you guessing and invested. Tension-building in this thang was masterful, but the beats intended to be most dramatic/tense/climactic did not have that satisfying punch I expected them to (Nay, needed them to!). Also unfortunately, the ending didn't hit for me at all :( I still had an enjoyable time with it, but can't say I loved it after finishing. Still, strong writing + fun ride keeps it in the 4 stars for me^^

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, and Vomit