Reviews tagging 'Grief'

La anomalía by Hervé Le Tellier

9 reviews

town_scar's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

emmaopaline's review against another edition

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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Toxic friendship

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

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

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: Death, Violence, Grief, and Murder

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

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

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

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, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Pregnancy

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

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

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

astridrv's review against another edition

funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Violence, and Grief

Very well paced book, that I read easily over 24 hours. The first part of the book was in my eyes really successful in creating believable characters and an intriguing set-up. The other two thirds delivered, but delivered an average book, pleasant, gripping enough, ultimately forgettable. I think the author had a lot of fun writing this and also had a heart break to process. Both make for a charming book that does not reach as deep as the premise and ambition (visible in the endless philosophical references) would lead you to believe.