Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

La anomalía by Hervé Le Tellier

19 reviews

pershie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

Oh boy, how to describe the book that I just read… The Anomaly is a genre-bending, multi-perspective, multi-timeline book that will leave you with more questions than answers. It all takes place over the course of a few months, and the satire, science fiction, and dystopia all wrapped up in one brings you to the end of the book in a hurry. It’s a book about empathy, yet also a book about some of the biggest horrors of life. There’s not much more I can write about The Anomaly without spoiling it, so I’d simply suggest reading it and interpreting it as you wish. You may need to search the internet for answers once you’re done, but this book will leave you thinking about life for a long time. Oh, and that last page is a journey, to say the least!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Murder, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Terminal illness, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Sexual content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Grief, and Religious bigotry

bre88's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Incredible. A truly unique and multi layered story with diverse perspectives from a large group of characters. Somehow the writer successfully builds worlds around  characters who span the globe and brings authenticity to all of them. I can’t wait to read this one again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Confinement

Moderate: Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Medical content, Gun violence, Suicide, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit

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

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

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

alylentz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was such an intriguing and engrossing read. In particular, I found the ending to be really bold and was a satisfying end to the ride.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Gun violence

toquee_de_litterature's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

L'histoire est assez simple: un avion et ses 200 et quelques passagers atterrit à New York en mars 2021. Ce même avion, avec les mêmes passagers, atterrit de nouveau en juin. Cet évènement perturbe et bouleverse non seulement les passagers, qui devront éventuellement faire face à leur double, mais aussi le monde entier. 

Le roman commence par l'introduction et présentation de onze personnages passagers de ce vol Paris/New York, que nous suivrons en alternance tout au long du roman. Chaque chapitre porte sur un personnage différent et s'incrit dans un genre littéraire distinct. Nous avons le roman noir avec son tueur à gages, le roman sentimental où un homme tente désespérément de s'accrocher à une femme qui lui glisse lentement entre les doigts, le roman 'drame familial' dans lequel une mère de famille réalise petit à petit que son mari n'est pas celui qu'elle pensait. Le tout est ancré dans un roman d'anticipation/de science-fiction. 

Un roman mélangeant autant de genres aurait été intéressant si ce n'était du fait que l'auteur ne fait que survoler chacun de ces genres sans jamais réussir totalement à tirer le meilleur de chacun. On voit clairement que Le Tellier ne les maîtrise pas tous, ce qui rendait parfois la qualité de la lecture inégale. 

Suite à la découverte de ce second vol, le monde tente d'expliquer ce phénomène inexplicable. Est-ce un acte de Dieu? Une expérience scientifique qui a mal tourné? Les extra-terrestres sont-ils derrière tout ça? On explore différentes théories alors que le monde commence à se diviser: ceux qui crient 'abomination!' et ceux qui accueillent les doubles à bras ouverts. 

Je pense que Le Tellier savait exactement quoi écrire, et comment l'écrire, pour gagner le grand public. C'est un "page-turner" qui fait énormément appel à la culture populaire et au 'name-dropping'. Ça ne m'a personnellement pas dérangée, mais je m'étonne que "L'Anomalie" ait gagné le Goncourt l'année dernière. C'est loin d'être un chef-d'oeuvre littéraire. C'est un roman que plusieurs qualifient de sympathique et je pense que c'est un terme approprié. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Terminal illness