Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

76 reviews

lesliej_pdx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful informative medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, War, and Classism

miller8d's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? No

4.5

Changed my relationship to books and reading. One of the best books I have ever read. I highlighted so many passages that the Kindle highlight collection was literally 26 pages long.

Cried several times both out of happiness and sadness. Beautifully captures the actual sensations of love and loss and grief, and the gorgeous nature of children and animals and family, queer love and neurodivergent pain, and so much more. Refreshing poetry and ridiculously beautiful world-building in such intricate historical contexts. Addressed so many different issues and experiences with such flair and emotion. Delivers anarchist / anti-establishment / leftist values from the optimistic perspective that to be human is to be a part of the problem, and yet, we must love one another and love the Earth in order to power through the pain of life in order to radically experience the love, because that’s why we are here.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

I am very sensitive and I LOVED this book and found it deeply emotionally uplifting despite these very severe content warnings

clairew97's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Bullying

Minor: Homophobia and Rape

amyford's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Physical abuse

margaret_k30's review

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

brycestevenwilley's review

adventurous inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

Good story, good characters, and the main draw (disparate stories over large swaths of time) was executed really well; each had a satisfying conclusion, and the threads conmecting each are slowly and methodically revealed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and War

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Slavery

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

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

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

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