Reviews tagging 'Death'

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

40 reviews

nreyno's review

adventurous informative tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Death, Drug use, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

themorsecode's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A pageturner. Liked the multi perspective approach and there was some spiky satire on all sides, ending didn't quite land for me but I was hooked to the last page

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Death, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident

abbinha's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

mariannelwnicholson's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very good. The ending THREW me but was excellently done. Well worth a read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use and Gun violence

e11en's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Stalking, and Drug use

velvet_young's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, and Toxic friendship

katariinak's review

dark tense slow-paced

• 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? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Grief

mmmmmats's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

obiterocelot's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Read if you love: New Zealand accents, the Fox and Ferret bar, gardening, a likeable bad guy, bunkers, hippy communes, not having a clue what is going to happen, young people problems, awkward social relationships, Marxist manifestos, descriptive prose, drone strikes, environmental terrorism.

Avoid if you love: cosy stories about gardening, fast paced and action packed thrillers, happy endings, stories without trigger warnings, hooking up with good guys, conspiracy theorists being wrong.
—————

Ok, but what an ending. And everything really happens in the final 5%! 
The way the mystery unfolds is with one giant twist after another until it feels like you are reading a completely different book than the one you picked up. In the best way possible.
I would never have expected the story to have ended in a complete TPK. Kind of fitting given the environmental themes in the stories. Everyone will go down together.
And I’d put money on that being fully intentional. She is an intelligent woman, Eleanor Catton. Between this and the Luminaries, I’ll pick up whatever she writers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, and Murder

isabellew27's review

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

Well-written but way too much detailed character development and too little plot development/action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Classism, Toxic friendship, and Drug use