Reviews with content warning for Schizophrenia/Psychosis - When We Cease to Understand the World

Benjamín Labatut ficciona cuatro grandes descubrimientos del siglo XX (los fertilizantes, la geometría no euclidiana, los agujeros negros, la mecánica cuántica) trazando un camino de hilos que engarzan las vidas de los científicos implicados en estos descubrimientos.
A veces terrible, a veces inspirador, en cualquier caso es un ejercicio de narrativa fantástico.

Content Warnings

arielamandah's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

What in the world did I just read? This is a strange, ambitious novel that’s part philosophy, part historical science, and part terrifying walk through the horrors of the modern world. And some very odd sexual scenes, to boot. It feels like there’s a lot of mixing fiction and science here - blurring those lines. And, truly, it was very dark, violent, and explicit about the horrors of war and chemistry, and the scary parts of math and science. (It didn’t make me walk away from it feeling very good - mostly just sad, disgusted, and a little WTF.)

Content Warnings

theabee's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

lipka's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

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

Un verdor terrible is... blue, black, and devastating. It's a strange moment: the reality and unreality folded together, nonlinear and noneuclidean. You really could blot out the sun with this book. Hold it just high enough—the shadow it casts is a dark, ancient thing.

The chapters fling themselves in all directions at breakneck speed. A comet, and a coma. "What wind drags it off with the fury of an angel cast out from heaven, falling, and falling, and falling?" Only the tail end of it can tell.

Content Warnings

albernikolauras's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.5

This is a complicated book that wavers on the line between nonfiction and fiction. It starts out near nonfiction and then as we get further in time and into science, the line blurs further. It's a book that plays with how famous scientists reached through reality to pull their theories into fruition. It's disturbing, discomfiting, near hallucinogenic, and I don't know what to think of part of it.

It's something that still haunts me, and it brings to question the morality of a scientist entangled in his worth as a scientist in the times of war that these men lived through. It's a quick read, but it does require some background knowledge on different physicists that made key quantum discoveries. I would recommend it, but definitely look at some of the content warnings.

Content Warnings

samferree's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-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

5.0

The closest comparison I can think of to the style and content is Erik Larson's narrative non-fiction. I'm honestly not sure what parts are fiction since I was already familiar with some of the history and biographies of the characters and none of the major points appear to be inaccurate. I assume people just are not sure how to classify it and so opted for "fiction." While I enjoyed and was fascinated by this book, I also do worry that it promotes a somewhat unfortunate and harmful narrative as a "mad genius" who discovers knowledge so profound and devastating that it ruins them as people. Though, that appears to be what did actually happen to several of greatest minds of the 20th century who developed theories in physics, mathematics, and chemistry that have changed our world and not always for the better. Which I do appreciate as a foil against the tendency to celebrate genius and breakthroughs as necessarily good when that is not always the case.

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