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jaklindberg's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Graphic: Death, War, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Murder
itsbumley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Violence
mj_86's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Mental illness, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: War and Forced institutionalization
georgiarowe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Minor: Death of parent and Death
dramagirl2003's review
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Terminal illness, Death, and Gun violence
thehollyking's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
1.75
I've never been a fan of stories that tell you in a sentence at the end the thought or moral you're meant to be taking away from the book, and this does just that. It kind of felt like the moral came first and the plot came second.
It wasn't a bad book. It was just fine.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Colonisation, Suicide, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Bullying, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, and War
jodar's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Some of the key things the MC seeks to teach us:
- Life isnât perfect, but if could be worse â one of my favourite passages:
No one I knew in the 1600s wanted to find their inner billionaire. They just wanted to live to see adolescence and avoid body lice. (Part 5, âDubai, nowâ)
- We canât control everything, but we arenât entirely at the mercy of fate either. And what you choose to do matters:
âYou canât choose where you are born, you canât decide who wonât leave you, you canât choose much. A life has unchangeable tides the same as history does. But there is still room inside it for choice. For decisions.⊠Just one wrong turn can get you very lost. What you do in the present stays with you . It comes back. You donât get away with anything.â (MC to pupil, Part 3, âLondon, nowâ)
- People are often annoying and can cause you mental anguish while you live with them and intense grief at death. But avoiding close relationships, although seductive for a time, is not the answer in the end, as without other people life is lonely and joyless. Various passages throughout the novel, for example:
âLove is where you find the meaning. Those seven years I was with her contained more than anything else.⊠You simply canât fall in love and not think there is something bigger ruling us. Something, you know, not quite us. Something that lives inside us, caged in us, ready to help us or fuck us over. We are mysteries to ourselves.âŠâ (Omai to the MC, Part 5.âByron Bay, Australia, nowâ)
- What will be will be, and it is fruitless and self-destructive to fear the future:
I understand that the way you stop time is by stopping being ruled by it. I am no longer drowning in my past, or fearful of my future. How can I be?
The future is you.
(MCâs final thoughts at the very close of the novel, having finally, after over four centuries,succeeded in reconciling with his daughter and also begun a new intimate relationship )
All well and very good, but to me thereâs a strange, gaping hole in the narrative and MCâs exploration of meaning: religion. Religion is noted as the reason for his Huguenot familyâs forced late 16th-century departure from France to England. The MC and his first love attend church in early 17th century England, until his unchanging appearance makes it untenable to continue. And the MC continues to live through periods of religious ferment. So itâs not as though the MC wasnât exposed to contemporary Christianity, at least. And yet the MC doesnât seem to consider, grapple with or argue against any religious understanding of lifeâs broader meaning. At all. At any time. Nor as far as I can recall do any of the other characters in the book. Itâs almost as if every character in the novel, purportedly through centuries of time and across wide geographical areas of the earth, were all 21st century, English secularists all along. I find this weird and unbelievable!
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault
Minor: Cursing, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Drug use
vicixyz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief
Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, and Gun violence
lantheaume's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Alcohol
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Gun violence
thebowandthebook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Death, and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death