Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

153 reviews

parfait52's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

It took me several months to get through this book, which is saying something because it's fairly short. Every time I picked it up, I was interested enough. Once I put it down, though, I didn't feel the need to pick it back up. This book doesn't really have a plot so much as it has a story. And once you figure out how the story is forming and the author is doing, it's very easy to know where it's going to go. At times, I found the writing to be beautiful and profound. I found the concept fascinating, but the execution was stifling at points. There were several parts of the book that I personally found very boring and wanted to get past immediately. Overall, not a bad read. There are just books I've enjoyed more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Stalking, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy, Child death, Alcoholism, Drug use, Rape, and Sexual assault

bookboi56's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I really wanted to enjoy this book, having heard good things about it for a long while. But whilst the premise is very interesting, and the opening chapters are very intriguing given their close resemblance to the COVID-19 outbreak, I found the rest of the story a trudge to get through. 

Maybe 20% of the book unfolds with the present characters in mind. The rest constantly flips back and forth between any one of about 12 characters all vaguely related to each other at greater and greater tangents, whilst moving from present to past in short fitful chapters.

As someone who is not great with names, having only a quick description for each person is not sufficient to keep up with a dozen similarly traumatised apocalypse survivors. This may be an effect of listening to the book rather than reading it. But for the last 2 thirds I found myself just going along and trying to enjoy what I was hearing with no context as to who anyone was. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, Grief, Violence, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

reggiethebird's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I very much preferred this to Sea of Tranquility. Those first 30 or so pages are a tough read, and hit a little too close to home (the toilet paper line got me [ I'm very glad I read this after covid]), but the rest is nicer. Jumps around the timeline a ton, but once you know to expect it it works beautifully.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Violence, Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Rape

bcrowes11's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• 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: Violence, Terminal illness, and Gun violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Murder, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mishellsch's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I see how this novel and the miniseries about a deadly flu and the resulting dystopia flew under the radar while we were experiencing our own pandemic.

 Now to finish the last few episodes of the miniseries. The miniseries adjusted some of the characters' storylines to help format the plot for the screen. So far, I don't mind the changes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Rape

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Minor: Suicide and Rape

triley's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, and Rape

dryriver's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

cueba's review against another edition

hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.25

Oh this is a tough one! Personally, I liked it. But you will definitely not like it if you expect this as a dystopian novel with its usual suspense and shebangs. It's calmer than that and the book is more of a slice-of-life which happens to be set in a post-apocalyptic world. Don't expect the book to propose new ideas in the dystopia genre

Very minimal spoiler that details on the antagonist:

The Prophet is not that vital in the plot and it's not really intended to. Don't expect a suspenseful chase of sorts. He's nicely written though! I love the approach on the identity reveal.

The prose is so damn good but it barely has any plot. Some main characters also have not much of personality. Very minimal spoiler that details on the protagonists:

Kirsten (the main protag and the actress) is not that distinct but her narration is nice. I liked Miranda and Clark (since they are arguably the most fleshed-out characters). There's also Jeevan but hmm... there's a big time-skip from pre to post so he's a bit wonky and didn't really mattered—though, his pre-apocalyptic life is nicely written.

On to the prose: it's good. Like so-many-highlights-good. The tone is consistent (that is: slow) and I loved how it's built up—this is a book that seems planned from start to finish. I personally liked how the Prophet is handled but it might not be enough for others. The ending is heartwarming and I think it's such a fitting end! Solid read, and I'll definitely check out the author's other books! :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape and Gun violence

rebeccarudisill's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, and Gun violence