Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

26 reviews

torismazarine's review against another edition

funny lighthearted reflective slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Incest, Murder, Cancer, Medical content, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, and Chronic illness

Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, and Pregnancy

kouran94's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, and Murder

jencolumb0's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

A multi-layered exploration into life, the universe, and everything, with a lot of wry side-swipes at pop culture as a lot of Big Questions are posed and Core Assumptions challenged. This book manages to be thought-provoking without bogging itself down. It echoed Amores Perros for me, but border, deeper, and . . . French. The cast of characters is almost unwieldy but that observation (or even discomfort), in itself, encourages the reader down a separate rabbit hole of thought and reflection. This is not the book you pick up when you simply want a story to get lost in. It is far better suited to those nights in which you miss your university philosophy course work but don’t want to actually dig out, dust off, or dive into the original texts. For the right moment, an outstanding jumping off-point for some interesting thought experiments.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Murder, Cancer, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Homophobia

Minor: Antisemitism, War, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

Specific issues to flag generally covered by the content warnings above: graphic description of dismemberment, passing reference to tattoos from German concentration camps during WWII, and discussion of incestuous child sex abuse that provides the general idea of what happened but does not get into too many details and is positively resolved.

maneatingbadger's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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

Best novel I've read in a while. First third is typical setup, the rest I could not put down. Audibly laughed and gasped at several points, often back-to-back. It really nails the the sense of foreboding and dawning realization of what's about to happen, and then exploring the consequences. Verisimilitude is spot-on, though as always I could do with a bit more worldbuilding, some more answers to all the structural questions raised. The metaphysical debates are a tad predictable but fun. I'm curious how recognizable the celebrity/VIP cameos will be in a few years. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Murder

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Terminal illness, Child abuse, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Cancer

danpeachey's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Pedophilia, Murder, Suicide, and Pregnancy

imyril's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

A quick read that’s about as interesting as a cereal box - Le Tellier likes to experiment with form, but the result is dissatisfying when approached as the SF novel it is framed as, The Anomaly consisting of only a thin plot and flat characters. More of a concept or a thought experiment than a fully-fledged SFnal read. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Child abuse, Homophobia, Murder, and Terminal illness

eelfleece's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I wanted to like this book, but it was missing something when it came down to the interwoven points of view. There wasn't enough exploration of the scifi aspects or what they meant for the world, and the constant flowery interjections got a bit much. 

Really interesting concept, worth reading, but wish it had been better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness and Homophobia

imds's review

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Murder, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Incest, and Body horror

kms80's review

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Very interesting sci-fi concept and engaging writing. Not sure I found the ending as satisfying as others did. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness

Minor: Child abuse

kyrajg's review

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Gun violence

Moderate: Violence and War