Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

79 reviews

billyjepma's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

"First we only want to be seen, but once we're seen, that's not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered."

Emily St. John Mandel taps into something sublime with Station Eleven, something that manages to speak to a particular moment in time while also capturing something universally timeless about living. The narrative and its characters may not have always resonated with me, but Mandel's beautiful writing and thematics quickly and repeatedly struck a nerve with me.

I usually latch onto the characters in a story, so while I liked the casts Mandel shifts between, I never felt as invested in them as I wanted. For example, I kept waiting for the story to peel back layers on specific characters or ideologies in the "present-day" sections, but those insights never really came. After all of the rich character development and exploration of the "flashback" stories—which, while familiar, are written with aching honesty and vulnerability—the present-day sections felt somewhat lacking.

That's not what's going to stick with me, though. The stories of lonely people discovering and fighting for their found families, the enduring hope they create together, the capacity for art and conviction to be what saves our souls in the end—that's what I'll remember about Station Eleven. I don't think the book even says anything profoundly original, but the unique angles it uses to approach those familiar ideas and genres make them feel new. Or, if not new, then timely and maybe even necessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Grief, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Death of parent, Torture, Suicide, Abandonment, Child death, and Vomit

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

"He woke to quiet voices. This had been happening more and more lately, this nodding off unexpectedly, and it left him with an unsettled intimation of rehearsal. You fall asleep for short periods and then for longer periods and then forever."

Compellingly written prose with a well-developed cast of characters. Whilst I wish Kristen's storyline had more events within it, I really liked the book and I think it is both hopeful and unsentimental about humanity, in a way that I suspect might be altered in the TV adaptation. 

This book has a lot to say about art and community-building and the role these will play in coming crises. It felt resonant with ecological anxieties about climate change and social anxieties in the age of COVID-19. Some of the passages about process and industrialisation felt a tad oversimplified and neoliberal - surely an Amazon delivery driver or a factory worker making snowglobes has complex, nuanced feelings about their labour and their lives that goes beyond gratitude for a job - but everything else was thoughtful, interesting, well-paced and moving. I loved Kirsten and Miranda. What wonderful characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, and Mental illness

lemonflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical trauma, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Minor: Infidelity

readerette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

I could not put this down. I was immersed. I've never experienced an apocalyptic story that came so close to feeling real--how things seem like they would really go if something world-ending came to pass. Aside from Part 7 being too long and unfocused for my taste, I loved it all: the writing, the characters, the relationships, the new world that came to be, the little things people remembered or cherished... Just beautiful. She's captured the little world within a world that each of us builds by way of the people we are connected to; the ones we know our whole lives and the ones we meet indirectly through their art or work or or mutual friends; the ones we meet early and the ones we meet later; the ones we lose for a while and the ones we lose forever; the ones who were part of some milestone and the ones who were a constant.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, and Cursing

savvylit's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-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

4.0

Station Eleven is an eerily realistic post-collapse narrative. Most interestingly, Station Eleven's power lies in neither the characters nor the plot. Rather, the strength of this novel relies entirely on the palpable and riveting atmosphere that Mandel has created. By utilizing a nonlinear timeline and multiple points of view, Mandel effortlessly immerses readers in the feeling of collective post-apocalyptic uncertainty.
Despite the very bleak nature of this novel's events, Station Eleven is ultimately a beautiful and hopeful book. It's a novel about chosen families, human resilience, and the power of art.

Station Eleven is such an unforgettable and unique addition to the dystopian genre. I loved Mandel's writing and cannot wait to read more of her work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

emhunsber's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Drug use, Infidelity, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Death of parent, Child death, and Alcohol

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

I've had this book since Christmas 2017 and have been meaning to get to it for years, but the hype often put me off because I didn't know if it would live up to my expectations. And then the last time I considered reading it was at the start of 2020 and I soon decided I didn't want to read a pandemic novel during a pandemic. However I'm so glad I finally got to it. It was so brilliant and I read it in two sittings. I often really enjoy a book with interwoven plots so I loved that it follows different characters and I found them all fascinating. At first I wasn't sure if I would feel more invested in some of the storylines than others but luckily that wasn't the case and I was never waiting to get back to a more interesting part. Mandel has created a fascinating world and I'll be thinking about it for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape and Suicide

garynoplastie's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Terminal illness, Blood, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Animal death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Grief, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Rape

daisydoolie's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed this, different to what I’d usually read, and the premise was interesting - although less convincing when you’d actually lived through a flu like pandemic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Gun violence, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexual violence