Reviews tagging 'Death'

La anomalía by Hervé Le Tellier

21 reviews

eliel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The book has fascinating story concept, beautiful characters and great writing.

For me this was the perfect book to read right now. It tied together so many things I have heard and read lately. Definitely a book I can get back to eventually.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Cancer, Incest, Death, Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Self harm

Minor: Torture

bookdelope1's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

There are a lot of different characters. I found it hard to remember all the details, so I had to go back to earlier chapters every now and then.
Other than that it is a great book. It is interesting how different people handle the situation. It could have gone more into depth here and there. The ending left me speechless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, and Death

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Homophobia, Hate crime, Cancer, Pedophilia, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Torture, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Incest

znvisser's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

I picked up this book because I was intrigued by its premise, and ended up bonding with some interesting characters too. However, none of it was really explored in-depth, because the author tried to cram EVERYTHING into a limited number of pages: there are storylines before, during and after discovering the divergence, and wayyyy too many characters along the way. The author uses all their storylines to explore as many relational, philosophical and political themes and ideas as possible and as a result of all this, nothing really exceeds superficiality.

Furthermore, I ran into quite a few of my pet peeves, which didn’t contribute to my reading experience. The author, through his instrument of the storyteller, exudes an air of arrogance: women are described through a male gaze (even when Lucie meets herself), Nigeria and the US through a European gaze, and religion through an atheist gaze. There was no reason to not explore this more humbly. And on a less serious note: I just don’t enjoy writers writing about writing. It only works for me in very few instances, and this was definitely not one of those. It was made worse by the writer in this book having written a book called ‘the anomaly’ too, which kept popping up so often it became quite central to the story, even quoting from its imaginary pages as if it were the most brilliant thing ever written. Was this supposed to be clever, or funny? Similarly, was it supposed to be clever or funny to make a caricature out of a president that has hurt so many lives? 

For me this story would have improved immensely by just sticking to the relational aspect through a limited number of characters. Now it was just an ok read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

ritavidi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Child abuse, Medical content, Gun violence, Homophobia, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, and Hate crime

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

I thought the concept of this book was really cool - the characters are duplicated with a four month gap and have an opportunity to make different choices - but the execution didn't work for me. The setup is way too long and the book is much more about the simulation theory than any of the characters. I never felt really connected to anyone and nothing interesting happened. Also the book within a book of The Anomaly sounded terrible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Incest, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, and Xenophobia

sweeetpeasoup's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

This was the best and most interesting book I’ve read in a long while. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I will be thinking about this book for ages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Incest, Suicide attempt, Cancer, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Homophobia

lemonflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Murder

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child abuse, and Cancer

Minor: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

quotes_with_a_quill's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is not one I would have chosen, but one that will stay with me. One of the few I will order for my shelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Minor: Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness

The (s)child abuse is description brief and not graphically written. The scene is implicitly implied without graphic description- ie disassociation. Again brief. From someone whom experienced nearly a replica of the characters it was triggering and yet validating to a degree. It is an accurate portrait of disassociation. It’s brevity is unlikely to trigger those who do not have a history of this, though that is speculative. I would not have read this book had I known it was in here, but I will reread it even though I know it is there. I only listened to the audiobook, but when I receive my print copy I will update this with page number. It is truly a paragraph of disassociation and the only one that was personally triggering to me. ( I wish I could leave an emoji of hearts and hugs if you’ve had this experience. Just know this is written w that in mind.)

arantzazum's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-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

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Moderate: Homophobia