Reviews tagging 'War'

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

17 reviews

wormgirl's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Rape, Pedophilia, Classism, Sexual assault, Abortion, War, Infidelity, Suicide, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Car accident

afternoondreamer's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.75

Wow. What a fantastic book. I loved traveling through the life of the characters and how you get to know what happened in the past. I felt a lot of things while reading. Despite the book being slow paced, I really enjoyed the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction and Miscarriage

krisheiney's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

Margaret Atwood leans into evocative imagery and rumination on language in this book. At times, it reads more like poetry, as she turns words and adages on their head, leaving no linguistic stone unturned. What a pleasure also to see a cynical octogenarian as a narrator. Atwood does not shy away from the effects of aging, especially under the burden of remorse and a troubled past. The book-within-the-book unfolds and wraps around the main sections with little hints at the mysteries behind what we are directly told scattered throughout. I found the book rather slow at times, but otherwise, a skillful masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Child death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Sexism, Miscarriage, Death of parent, War, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

moon_peach's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The story of Iris and Laura was wonderful. The other parts not so much.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Suicide, Domestic abuse, and Sexual violence

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

Listen, before you all come at me, I love Atwood, but this was such a miss for me. It was just so dull. I like a lot of her books, so I expected to like this one, but I really didn’t. 

 

Margaret Atwood  blends romance, science fiction, and gothic tension into one story in The Blind Assassin. The novel opens with the unexplained death of Laura Chase, a young lady who may have committed herself in 1945. Many years thereafter, Iris, Laura's sister, narrates her recollections of their early years and the noteworthy demises that had interspersed their affluent and colorful family's past. Chapters from the scandalous novel that made Laura famous, in which two illegal lovers entertain themselves with a story about a blind killer on a far-off planet, are woven into Iris's story. The mysteries that have plagued the Chase family for a long time are progressively revealed by these intricately detailed stories inside stories, culminating in an incredible and thought-provoking conclusion. 

 

I just found the characters too dull to even care about. Not even the forbidden love aspect was entertaining (and I love forbidden romance). 

 

I don’t know. Her writing style here just felt so childish compared to her previous novels, and that put me off so bad. It had a brilliant premise, but a horrible execution. Still love her though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abortion, Rape, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Sexual assault, Death, and War

isabezza's review

challenging informative mysterious slow-paced

2.75

I love Margaret Atwood's writing - this book contains her signature imagination and characterisation, as well as a moral question founded in American history. However, this book requires an active brain so I found it useful to research some of the themes whilst reading (e.g. themes of money, women's roles, the great depression, war, social context.) This is a heavy book with huge twists only revealed at the end, and changes to how readers may interpret the characters. This novel takes a lot of energy to comprehend, involving multiple narratives which take a while to understand and stitch together (Laura Chase's novel, Iris' narrative in the present, and Iris' narrative in the past.) Certainly a slow read and not one I may recommend for enjoyment but I certainly learnt a lot from this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, War, Abortion, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Rape, and Pedophilia

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

 The Blind Assassin won the Booker Prize in 2000. The protagonist is Iris Chase Griffin who, in her eighties, is writing her life story so that her surviving granddaughter will know the truth about her life and that of the wider family. Iris’s was an interesting life which included a prosperous, if motherless, childhood, an unhappy marriage to a controlling businessman, a complicated relationship with her younger sister Laura who became a famous novelist, and many, many secrets - some involving Iris and others discovered by her. Various historical events were folded into the plot and I particularly enjoyed the look at Canadian businesses, labour relations, and Communist activity in the inter-war years.

That Atwood’s writing was a standout goes without saying and, as always, I was impressed by her storytelling abilities. I enjoyed the snippets from the social pages featuring Chase and Griffen family members, as well as newspaper articles about various political events. However, the standout was the unique book within a book within a book structure. Iris’s story included chapters from Laura’s novel which itself included a science fiction told by one character to another. The way these stories reinforced each other was very clever and I enjoyed discovering links, connections and parallels between the three different stories. The structure added depth and richness to the story. I do think it contributed to my taking a while to settle into the book though. A complicated slow burn but for me it was worth it.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Suicide

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, War, Miscarriage, and Rape

courtneyreadsometimes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Body shaming, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and War

sophieennis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Grief, Death, Car accident, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Rape, War, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Medical content, Death of parent, and Abortion

telcontar2901's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

4.75

This book is a multi-layered story of a family: the bonds between spouses, parents + their children, and especially sisters—and how these bonds can twist, bend, and break. It took me about 100 pages to get the hang of this one, due to the structure and pace: the narrator takes her time describing things, and the story-within-a-story-within-a-story format will leave you with many questions. However, as I read on, I found my initial assumptions challenged as I was drawn into this moving story of regret and the passage of time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: War, Emotional abuse, Rape, and Suicide

Minor: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Pedophilia