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fkshg8465's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Grief, Homophobia, Infertility, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racism, and Terminal illness
rickle400's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, and War
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Rape, Death of parent, and Child death
becksusername's review
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Homophobia, Classism, Infidelity, Infertility, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Sexual assault, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Bullying
donutlookaway's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Homophobia and Chronic illness
Minor: Death of parent, Sexual assault, Rape, and Suicide
wormgirl'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
3.0
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, and Grief
Minor: Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Child death, and Death of parent
erebus53's review against another edition
- 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
Spanning roughly 200 hundred years this is a book about a world similar to our own but subtly different. It starts in the 1890s in an America which has some areas where it is legal to marry anyone you wish. It discusses 1990s in the same place only with a backdrop of the looming spectre of HIV. The final part is in the 2090s after waves of pandemics have changed the face of the First World into a dystopian vision of strict controls and segregation.
The book discusses health and frailty, chronic illness, being gay, the idea of inheritance and Legacy, life and treatment of migrants of ethnic minority, and love, feud, vulnerability, and .. people being people.
When I got the audiobook I had no idea it was such a long read (over 900 pages or 28+hours in the Audiobook) but the story wasn't really slow.. it just had a LOT in it. It seemed a poetic decision to have a recurring set of names and places. Partly this was to reinforce the continuity of lineage, inheritance and flow of time. Looking at things from different cultural perspectives over time highlights the changes caused by the passage of time, but also the similarities.
This book is artful and tells the stories within it through letters, memories, and stories told to others. It leans hard into the Hawaiian / Pacific Islands' oral tradition, and also highlights the place of those shared stories we tell each other, and how they cement families and communities. It also shows how that knowledge can be so fragile and be lost to time when ideas are not shared or if they cannot be passed on well.
This story starts as a piece of historical speculative fiction, but the latter parts of the book are set in a police state. Published in 2022, this book clearly channels a lot of the common ground we have experienced in the face of global pandemic. Freedom of information, and the radicalisation of rebels and conspiracy theorists against government control, are sympathetically highlighted by the use of main characters on both sides of the fence, one working for the government to limit the casualties of disease, and one fighting against government misinformation and lack of social freedoms.
For all the big ideas, the thing that really sells this whole book to me is the solid characters. The feelings expressed and the stuff they are going through really resonate with me. A number of the characters over the span of the book deal with anxiety, trauma and chronic physical illness. The relationships formed are often oddly unbalanced, either due to finances, physical/emotional frailty, or even just charisma, and the problems those couples have feel very real to me.
I could go on, but it would be too much. The characters were believable and human, and representation of disability and mental illness was relatable. The discussion of migrants and ethnic minority was an element I valued, and I loved that with the use of Hawaiian language I could still pick up one word in three due to its similarity with te reo Māori (which I only have a very basic familiarity with). This was a really good book, and I should have read it last year.
Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Homophobia, Ableism, Cannibalism, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Violence, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Grief, Infertility, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, and Rape
Minor: Alcohol
danaaliyalevinson's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Grief, Confinement, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual assault
rachaelwho's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Minor: Bullying, Police brutality, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Hate crime, Sexual content, Slavery, Colonisation, Medical content, Sexism, Ableism, Death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Animal death, Chronic illness, Infertility, Rape, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, and War
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
It’s a big, sprawling and ambitious book, one with gorgeous prose. It is sort of three stories in one. The first is an alternative history, set in an America where the Civil War had a very different outcome. In the Free States homosexuality is fully accepted. However, racism and classism still prevail. The second story is more contemporary set in what is recognisably the AIDS epidemic. The third, which has an epistolary element and is the longest and most multifaceted of the three, is set in a dystopian future where multiple pandemics and climate change have caused plenty of suffering, martial law, the loss of liberty and the recriminalisation of homosexuality.
These three stories are entirely separate, each set roughly a century apart. And yet they are not. A house in Washington Square is a prominent location in each and all feature characters called David, Charles and Edward. This can be slightly disorienting since they are clearly not the same people. And yet they play similar roles and represent similar constructs. In addition there are strong thematic threads running through each story. All have a character, somewhat an outsider, who is seeking love and acceptance. The impact of colonisation in Hawaii, which places a central role in book 2, reappears in book 3 with a focus on ownership of Hawaiian artefacts and cultural appropriation. Disease, loss, inheritance, race, homosexuality, and safety are other common themes. Yet despite seeing these connections I found the structure a bit messy and confusing. I’m still ambivalent as to whether they combined effectively to form a coherent novel. That, and many other issues, especially those where the author’s position seems at odds with my own, would make for a fascinating book club discussion.
A beautifully written book that made me think, made me feel and will stick with me. A winner.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, and Terminal illness
qqjj's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Confinement, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Classism, Death, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Infertility, and Infidelity