Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Lincoln Highway: Roman | 'Eine Hymne auf das Leben auch unter allerwidrigsten Umständen.' Annemarie Stoltenberg, NDR Kultur by Amor Towles

45 reviews

midnightverde's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing 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

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This book hooked me from the start. I loved the structure. The story takes place over 10 days and there is excitement in each section, and it increases as you read. You read from various character perspectives and gain insights as you go. Reading this book gave me the feeling of drinking a warm beverage on a cool day, it was a very cozy read with lots of room for interpretation on what motivated certain characters or what they were thinking when they took certain actions. The ending was wild and I don’t even know exactly how I feel about it, but ultimately it’s somehow perfect in a way I wouldn’t have imagined. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol

marigold_faye's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, Abandonment

katherine_alexis's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Racism, Abandonment

Minor: War

summermc13's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Death of parent

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment

book_annelid's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Disappointed! I love Amor Towles other books but this was not it. I found the dispensing of life advice from 18 year old convicts and an 8 year old who’s never left his home town to be trite. The writing was beautiful but the plot seemed to have no direction whatsoever. Characters seemed at once flat and also to be acting out of character. Sally’s character was so cliche. Reading it she seemed like a woman written by an out of touch man. She really bugged me. Does this book even pass the Bechtel test? Also a bit overly “ra ra America”. While Amors other books give you a feeling (the way true art does) and hide universal truths in a beautiful, enjoyable storyline, this book felt like a was being bludgeoned over the head with a message, characters and plot be damned. 

Wtf was that ending! It was such a cliche “twist”, the everyone-dies-at-the-end has been done a million times. I found other musings to be cliche as well. For example, Maurice being not white enough and not black enough. The ending was just so unnecessary and pointless. It would’ve been less annoying had Dutches been left in the boat when it ended. Either way an unsatisfactory ending. Terrible! It was fine for the first 3/4 but after that it just went downhill. If the first 3/4 had continued could’ve been a 3.5 or 3.75 and with a good ending maybe a 4. But the bad rushed ending made me annoyed with the whole rest of the book and confused what all that setup was even for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment

Moderate: Racism

beccaj11's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Great story with lots of unexpected twists and turns. I loved the characters although there isn’t a lot of character development except for maybe one or two of them. The plot really drives the book and it’s a great, original plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

Minor: Suicide, Murder

alisonvh's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’m not sure how I feel about the ending of this book, but the whole book is so well written and the characters so well fleshed out that I can’t help but love it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Gun violence, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief, Fire/Fire injury

kimveach's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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For every book that most people think is great, or in Amazon's opinion "the best book of the year", there has to be someone that didn't like it.  I'm that person.  I can understand why people enjoyed it.  It's easy to read and parts of it are very entertaining.  However, the undercurrent of violence that runs through it didn't work for me.   For me, it felt more like a Quentin Tarantino ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood") or Coen Brothers ("Fargo") movie.  I can enjoy those sorts of movies since they are only a couple of hours, but this book took up too much of my time and left me unhappily unsettled.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

mondovertigo's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Racism, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

justamy's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-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: Complicated

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The main character is very likable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

Minor: War