Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

58 reviews

readbycarina's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicide, Gun violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Rape

Minor: Blood, Abandonment, and Terminal illness

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pedophilia, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Child death, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Stalking

mynameisrebecca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.75

This book starts off strong and stays strong all throughout. It's a twisted adventure through life before and after a major pandemic that leaves the world in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic state. The narrative follows several protagonists throughout their life, and it's up to the reader to start figuring out how - if at all - their worlds all collide. Despite the dark plot, it's filled with hope, inspiration, and wonder as we see this new world through the character's eyes.  I was hooked until the last page, trying to figure out how everything came together. The only reason it's not a 5 star read for me is that I felt some characters were underdeveloped due to the constantly switching narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness

Moderate: Gun violence and Murder

Minor: Blood

The core plot follows the impact of a global pandemic. If you're sensitive to that, I'd avoid.

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Alcohol, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Animal death, Mental illness, Drug use, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual content

beaucoupmich's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

I always have soft spot for post-apocalyptic themed book, but this one is just not it. The blurb sold me big deal, reminding me of the group of underground scholars in Fahrenheit 451 who memorize books to preserve knowledge since books were burned, which I believe loosely inspired the Traveling Symphony. "Risking everything for art and humanity", who isn't intrigued by that?

I'll rip the bandage: this is just plain boring. I'm so, so sorry. Especially the first half. It was painfully slow, much less with the past and present narratives, and I couldn't care less about some of the characters. Some major reveals were predictable from the start, and I honestly see no point of telling some of the characters' lives after. Thank god the book isn't too long.

I read some of the reviews here and I'm glad many people love it, and totally get why. I just wish I had the same joy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Adult/minor relationship

liliaweber's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

The threads of different lives are woven together across different eras - in a non-chronological arrangement of chapters that somehow flows beautifully, rhythmically, like a song.

This book is basically a meditation on a quote from Star Trek, which is a mantra often repeated by the characters themselves: "survival is insufficient." It's about why the human need to create art and tell stories is worth braving the danger of an unpredictable post-apocalyptic world. It's also about the choice to let go of what we've lost vs the drive to rebuild it, or how to balance both. I ugly cried more than once.

Three of the main characters are sympathetic, compelling, interesting. If there's any flaw in this book it's that the one character that glues the others together - the first character mentioned in the opening line - is self-centered, boring to read about, and doesn't grow. Defeating the villain is only a small sliver of the story; the main goals of the main characters are to survive a post-apocalyptic world, to uncover missing truth, and to create something worth surviving for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Trafficking

Murder, killing out of self-defense, and death from natural causes are depicted with some detail and are central to the story. The main villain of the story intends to traffick ("marry") a child but she escapes before he can. Suicide, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence are mentioned, but with very few details.

lemonflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical trauma, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Chronic illness, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

readerette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-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? No

5.0

I could not put this down. I was immersed. I've never experienced an apocalyptic story that came so close to feeling real--how things seem like they would really go if something world-ending came to pass. Aside from Part 7 being too long and unfocused for my taste, I loved it all: the writing, the characters, the relationships, the new world that came to be, the little things people remembered or cherished... Just beautiful. She's captured the little world within a world that each of us builds by way of the people we are connected to; the ones we know our whole lives and the ones we meet indirectly through their art or work or or mutual friends; the ones we meet early and the ones we meet later; the ones we lose for a while and the ones we lose forever; the ones who were part of some milestone and the ones who were a constant.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, and Cursing

emhunsber's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Drug use, Infidelity, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Death of parent, Child death, and Alcohol

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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? No

4.5

I've had this book since Christmas 2017 and have been meaning to get to it for years, but the hype often put me off because I didn't know if it would live up to my expectations. And then the last time I considered reading it was at the start of 2020 and I soon decided I didn't want to read a pandemic novel during a pandemic. However I'm so glad I finally got to it. It was so brilliant and I read it in two sittings. I often really enjoy a book with interwoven plots so I loved that it follows different characters and I found them all fascinating. At first I wasn't sure if I would feel more invested in some of the storylines than others but luckily that wasn't the case and I was never waiting to get back to a more interesting part. Mandel has created a fascinating world and I'll be thinking about it for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape and Suicide