Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

105 reviews

juliatsang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Grief, Bullying, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment and Adult/minor relationship

wytherwytch's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Really enjoyed this book. The whole things with words disappearing was a little weird but I still really enjoyed it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Death, Dementia, War, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Alcohol

atomicbritt's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault

vegotter's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death, Rape, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Trafficking, Torture, Bullying, Sexual content, and Pedophilia

aposthuma's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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

3.5

This book left me with a LOT of thoughts. I think I'm rating it 3.5 stars. I didn't care much about Ruth's POV and thought it was pretty slow, but Nao's parts were incredibly thought-provoking, bringing up themes like time, mortality, and permanence. Fair warning, this book is DARK. Far darker than i went in expecting

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Dementia, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

mvennen's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Death

kdelatorre's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Skimmed at first then skipped Ruth’s parts as they bored me. Ending felt a bit rushed — ironic considering how long it is. Very informative and illustrated the nuances of Japanese culture. Enjoyed Nao’s narrative style.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Rape

Minor: Sexual content

stevienielson's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Body shaming, Bullying, Sexual assault, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, War, and Sexual violence

michaela_chen's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Bullying, Suicide, Death, Sexual assault, Rape, and Self harm

kygpub's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i often struggle to appreciate objectively good writing, because 'good' writing often means opaque writing, and bridging the gap between words and meaning often feels like wading through mud. beautiful mud. but still mud.

this book is not like that. this is the kind of book that makes you wonder how people can even write like this. the style is really the peak of magical realism, both unbelievably creative and easily digestible prose. a lot of effort clearly went into researching and crafting it, and yet the end result feels effortlessly readable*. the characters are so well-articulated and real, which makes the magical, fairytale moments feel perfectly natural. everything feels so tangible and alive**, even in the midst of death.

*this book discusses philosophy, buddhism and QUANTUM PHYSICS. it switches between THREE LANGUAGES. so much shit happens in this book and yet i have a better memory of what happens than some of the <200 page books i've read recently.
**well, at least two of the characters are literally alive, i suppose

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Rape and Death