Reviews tagging 'Mass/school shootings'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

33 reviews

smsegal's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Animal death

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Abandonment, Homophobia, and Mass/school shootings

miller8d's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

Changed my relationship to books and reading. One of the best books I have ever read. I highlighted so many passages that the Kindle highlight collection was literally 26 pages long.

Cried several times both out of happiness and sadness. Beautifully captures the actual sensations of love and loss and grief, and the gorgeous nature of children and animals and family, queer love and neurodivergent pain, and so much more. Refreshing poetry and ridiculously beautiful world-building in such intricate historical contexts. Addressed so many different issues and experiences with such flair and emotion. Delivers anarchist / anti-establishment / leftist values from the optimistic perspective that to be human is to be a part of the problem, and yet, we must love one another and love the Earth in order to power through the pain of life in order to radically experience the love, because that’s why we are here.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Racism, Physical abuse, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, Abandonment, War, Slavery, Gun violence, Colonisation, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Child death, Child abuse, Suicide, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Death, Confinement, Racial slurs, Bullying, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Animal cruelty

I am very sensitive and I LOVED this book and found it deeply emotionally uplifting despite these very severe content warnings

carla20's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, War, and Gun violence

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Mass/school shootings

erinwolf1997's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, War, Mass/school shootings, Death, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Ableism and Bullying

orchidlilly's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

 Really, truly, spectacular. This is such a beautiful interwoven story spun across multiple lifetimes. It was delightful to see how each life connected with the other. Each character feels tangible and real, they all have so much depth and personality. Each plot-line is gripping and it is impossible to not feel for the characters. Seymour especially, I think, is beautifully written. His mental illness is incredibly accurately done, and he is never once demonized for it. Each character, despite their actions, kind or otherwise, is written and treated with respect and empathy. It's such a beautiful tale of humanity and kindness and struggle, and all of it is portrayed with such well researched nuance and intelligence. Definitely one of the best books if you want to feel something that is neither fully happy nor sad, but a cathartic combination of both. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Violence, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racial slurs, Body shaming, Death of parent, War, Gun violence, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, Pedophilia, Classism, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Slavery, Alcohol, Dementia, Drug use, and Excrement

betsygrace's review

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

I see why this won awards! It was a little slow for me at first but once the action picked up, I was hooked! I could never have imagined these stories intertwining the way that they did. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Medical trauma, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Hate crime, Medical content, Gun violence, and War

danielleafsordeh's review

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mass/school shootings, War, and Confinement

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty

zosiablue's review

adventurous challenging hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a capital-N Novel, of the classic kind. I can't describe how I felt about it. But I'll try. A multi-view sci-fi-historical-coming-of-age-heartbreaking-hopeful tragedy. I thought about the characters when I wasn't reading it. At one point, the author hints at a character's inevitable awful ending and I almost didn't want to read more so I could delay the death - a feeling that I don't get often, even though I read constant macabre. I was invested. It was subtle but sprawling. It was about how books can save your life and unrequited love and misfiled passions and wars for the wrong reasons. It was about the future! And the way past. It was kind of about everything without being overwrought. Dang.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Animal death, Homophobia, and Bullying

frannyrdclark's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I will say, it had a slow start, and it took me a good 100 pages or maybe a little more to feel drawn in. But once it had me it had me. I tend to like stories that are a bit more character driven, whereas this book was definitely more driven by plot. However, I like to rate on author’s intent rather than my personal preferences.

An interwoven tale of various people taking place over the course of 700 years, the one thing connecting them is a book, surviving against the odds through the ages. In many ways an ode to storytelling itself, I found especially the back half to be deeply moving and effective at showing us how stories shape the trajectories of our lives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Mental illness, Violence, War, Classism, Confinement, Death, Dementia, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, and Panic attacks/disorders