Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

13 reviews

mariawjw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Body shaming, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Grief, and War

Minor: Miscarriage

lesliej_pdx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful informative 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Confinement, Violence, War, Gun violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Homophobia

miller8d's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.5

Changed my relationship to books and reading. One of the best books I have ever read. I highlighted so many passages that the Kindle highlight collection was literally 26 pages long.

Cried several times both out of happiness and sadness. Beautifully captures the actual sensations of love and loss and grief, and the gorgeous nature of children and animals and family, queer love and neurodivergent pain, and so much more. Refreshing poetry and ridiculously beautiful world-building in such intricate historical contexts. Addressed so many different issues and experiences with such flair and emotion. Delivers anarchist / anti-establishment / leftist values from the optimistic perspective that to be human is to be a part of the problem, and yet, we must love one another and love the Earth in order to power through the pain of life in order to radically experience the love, because that’s why we are here.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Racism, Physical abuse, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Abandonment, War, Slavery, Gun violence, Colonisation, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Child death, Child abuse, Suicide, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Racial slurs, Bullying, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Animal cruelty

I am very sensitive and I LOVED this book and found it deeply emotionally uplifting despite these very severe content warnings

amyford's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Child death, and Physical abuse

margaret_k30's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Abandonment, War, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Racism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Grief, and Homophobia

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

 Really, truly, spectacular. This is such a beautiful interwoven story spun across multiple lifetimes. It was delightful to see how each life connected with the other. Each character feels tangible and real, they all have so much depth and personality. Each plot-line is gripping and it is impossible to not feel for the characters. Seymour especially, I think, is beautifully written. His mental illness is incredibly accurately done, and he is never once demonized for it. Each character, despite their actions, kind or otherwise, is written and treated with respect and empathy. It's such a beautiful tale of humanity and kindness and struggle, and all of it is portrayed with such well researched nuance and intelligence. Definitely one of the best books if you want to feel something that is neither fully happy nor sad, but a cathartic combination of both. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Violence, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Body shaming, Death of parent, War, Gun violence, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Slavery, Alcohol, Dementia, Drug use, and Excrement

apollo_grace's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Body shaming, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and War

Minor: Homophobia and Abandonment

carkazone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War

Minor: Animal death and Physical abuse

jlautry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I am torn on how to rate this book. I give the first half two stars, but the second half deserves a strong four star rating. This book was very slow to start and, being 600 pages long, that’s not good for me as a reader. If I hadn’t seen the reviews, this probably would have been a DNF for me. 

The beginning is very confusing because there are four different storylines, four different time periods, and within those time periods, the story jumps forward and backward. For me, this was really hard to keep track of and I ended up marking and color coding each of the story changes with tabs at the top of the book so that when I came back to a certain storyline I could flip back to the last couple of sections and remember where I was in the story. It was also very boring for about the first 250 pages. I mean, it literally put me to sleep a few times. 

Around p.350 (over halfway through) the story began to pick up steam and became interesting. I was able to read the latter part of the book in just a couple days, whereas the first half took me nearly 3 weeks. In the end, I am glad I finished it. The stories do eventually come together and the pieces start to fall into place. 

I loved Zeno’s story and he was lovable, but also heartbreaking. Anna and Omeir’s story was my favorite one for so many reasons, but mainly it’s how their story ended that solidified their place at #1 for me. The book ending was a really good balance of leaving it open ended and, at the same time, tying up loose ends.  It gave much cause for reflection about one’s self, interpersonal relationships, the world, and preservation and value of history. 

While, by the end, I enjoyed both of this author’s books, I am unlikely to pick up another of his. The stories are extremely long (but with beautiful imagery!) and slow to start, and the man has a serious grudge against commas. I cannot get over the lack of comma usage and the amount of temporary confusion it causes me throughout the book. If you haven’t read either of his books, I do recommend you read at least one of his! He’s not the author for me, but I can see how his style would be good for other types of readers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Murder

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Bullying, Physical abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Excrement and Rape