Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

La anomalía by Hervé Le Tellier

24 reviews

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

lizreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.5

What to say about this book without spoiling it? The first 150 pages are like a series of short stories detailing the lives of relevant characters, but I found the pacing to be slow. When the big sci-fi reveal happens, it’s interesting, but we largely move away from those characters into philosophical musings and existential angst. I think that this book is a bit confused as to whether it wants to be about the characters themselves or about the author’s own navel gazing about the hows and whys of the “human experience.” There are too many characters to care about, and then we don’t get enough resolution on their individual stories for them to matter. I read this quickly in hopes that it would be outstanding, but I came away a bit disappointed in the end. Also, check content warnings before diving into this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide

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

vbigv's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

I think I was a bit disappointed with the length of this book - It's quite short and it feels like all the characters could have an entire 300 pages dedicated to their story so getting so little on each character and on the main event that changes their lives is a bit frustrating, but I understand this is also a decision from the author.
A nice quick science-fiction piece that will make you think all the while entertaining you. Worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Pedophilia, Hate crime, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Homophobia

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

parablesarah's review against another edition

reflective fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

It really is as good as they say.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Homophobia, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Hate crime, Suicide, and Incest

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

lyko100's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

First of all, this book has some triggers in it so it may not be for everyone and I’ll try to list those triggers in this comment - without spoilers. 

At the beginning we learn about various characters who are of different age and each of them with a completely different story. We somewhat get to know them, see their flaws and later in the book we observe how those characters change and adapt to weird and indescribable circumstances. We see the characters observe their own behavior in a analytical type of way, and change their own behavior based on what they saw. 

The book touches various topics: from child harassment, through homosexuality in orthodox parts of Africa to metaphysical existential debate. 

Hard to say more about it without spoiling anything, overall a very good book with a rather predictable ending - hence 4/5. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Homophobia, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness