Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

This books is almost an easy 5 stars. One thing I would do though is that the few female characters in the book don’t have much autonomy. Still a fantastic book and one of my favorites!

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raybudbury's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense slow-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

4.0

This book was huge both in page/hr length and in the amount of stuff that was going on. I both loved it and was like I need you to be over. I think I may have to reread a paper copy instead of listening to it.

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theohume's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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? Yes

5.0

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ra22ouille's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad 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? Yes

5.0

What an unexpected story. I knew it was gonna be jewish, queer, holocaust era, comics—but I could not have ever ever ever predicted the story I got. The characters were so rich and I loved the dual focus on Sammy and Joe. I could feel how intentional the choices were in building these characters and they felt so natural and alive.
The grief in this book was very poignant. So was the joy and elation and fear and hope. Really loved it.

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podanotherjessi's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

My expectations going into this were quite off. I thought this was like a non-fiction style account of these men, but it's much more narrative than that. When I adjusted my expectations, I could enjoy it more, but it was still confusing to get real facts about comics interspersed with the fiction. That said, I really liked the characters in this. Sammy, Joe, and Rosa are very complex and deal with such interesting struggles. Rosa, in particular, was incredibly relatable to me.
The plot, however, had ups and downs for me. Tonally, it was awkward because I was expecting whimsy, and this was a dark and sad story for large portions of it; not surprising given it's about Jewish people during the mid-20th century, but when the main character is an escape artist-turned-comic artist, it's just a little jarring for me. And a felt the time jumps really interfered with my emotional attachment.

I would have loved to see Rosa and Sammy trying to make a family together rather than hearing about it after 13 years.

Overall, this was well written and compelling. I'd recommend it to people that enjoyed Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Or people that didn't like that but like the idea of exploring the bonds between people and their complex lives through their art.

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alexashabit's review against another edition

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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

2.5

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mimlleigh's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

3.5

It was an enjoyable read. I found myself wondering whether it was worth the length to devote time to it when there are so many other books I want to read. It was also very clearly written by a man who I think made a mistake as to who was the real hero of the book.

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alisonvh's review

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adventurous emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

Despite being a whitewashed version of New York City with sexist components, I still loved this book. It’s just so gorgeously written and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the characters.

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