Reviews with content warning for War - Cloud Cuckoo Land

Loved this book! Such a creative book following diverse stories linked by an ancient story in the most interesting way - a young girl in Constantinople in 1411 and the boy who was part of the army camped outside of the walls, an old man staging a play with children at the local library and a young man with a plan to make the developers responsible for local habitat destruction pay, a young girl in a pod hurdling away from the doomed planet with the mission of finding a new habitable one. The twists and turns of the story are beautiful and surprising, written with such skill - profound, sweet, thoughtful, heartwrending. An immediate classic and at its core, a love letter to libraries, books, and librarians, about the ways that stories make us.

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milamaassa's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Okay, Doerr’s tone is definitely one of my favorites. Have to give it to the Finnish translator, the tone has remained close to the original.

I loved this book. And I want to read it again. But I can’t give it full 5 stars. Sometimes this book was just too hard to grab, probably because the copy I read was 700 pages. As soon as I started reading though, it totally caught me. Usually. The last fourth was definitely the best of the story, oh how the plots were plotting. Actually, I would have probably enjoyed the story more if at least 200 pages were cut and added some padding to the end. It would have been nice to get the full aftermath.

Overall, extremely beautiful and somehow comforting story, captivating characters and interesting, heartbreaking storylines. Just give me more of ever after and less of embroidery and mrs. Boydstun.

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heidi_thompson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

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amm0029's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective 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

4.75

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nat_2610's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-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

5.0

Anthony Doerr has done it again. I already loved "All The Light We Cannot See" but "Cloud Cuckoo Land" is even better. The writing is as lyrical and descriptive and beautiful without being so purple it takes you out of the story. Doerr is an exceptional storyteller and I took my sweet time reading it, because I didn't want it to end.

It takes us from times long past and almost forgotten into a possible, bleak kind of future. There is a clear warning in these pages of what we leave behind for those who come after us.
It is also the story of a girl and a boy that are born into less than fortunate circumstances, who manage to find their way in life despite everything that is thrown into their path.
In present day it shows us a man who finds some sort of redemption when he thought his life didn't account to much and a teenager who is sourrounded by people that want to push him into a mold in which he just won't fit.

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