Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

168 reviews

krispyyk's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

Lots of stuff going on under the same theme - what makes life meaningful 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Suicide, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Death, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

daniellekat's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

I'm kind of shocked by how much I enjoyed this. I would have never picked this up if it wasn't on the 2023 Canada Reads shortlist. I had no idea what to expect, and knowing that the tagged genres were not my thing, I expected to hate this. BUT WOW. I can't exactly pinpoint what I loved, but this was so good. The writing was excellent, thought-provoking and poetic without being pretentious. I am a sucker for anyone who writes about Toronto well, and Mandel did not disappoint. I liked the weaving timelines and how all the main characters fit together, but I thought there were too many auxiliary characters to keep track of. I also wasn't a fan of the book's organization, the various section titles were unnecessary. I think there is definitely a different experience reading this in the post-COVID19 era and I wonder if I would have enjoyed this as much, had I read it pre-2020. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Gun violence

Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

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

danimcthomas's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

Absolute perfection. I still haven’t stopped thinking about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

americattt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

“A deer crossed the road ahead and paused to look at them before it vanished into the trees. The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it? Perhaps soon humanity would simply flicker out, but Kirsten found this thought more peaceful than sad. So many species had appeared and later vanished from this earth; what was one more?” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Rape

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.0

"Survival is insufficient." 

Station Eleven is different from apocalypse books because it doesn't focus on the collapse & destruction of society. Instead it focuses on the things we need after survival - human connections, the arts, and appreciation for the everyday things we take for granted. 

I initially struggled with understanding how the various characters and timelines would eventually converge. But patience paid off as the book progressed and I really enjoyed how everything tied together towards the end. I felt the book was unbalanced at times, for example it'd focus a lot someone's pre-pandemic backstory but post-pandemic they don't play a big role.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide and Rape

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Suicide