Reviews

Myth, past, future, and a lot of Greek storytelling tropes. A good, interesting read that kept me engaged after about 1/3. It's a little sluggish to start but a pleasure to finish.

Although it is long and a little slow at the beginning, I highly recommend setting aside time to tear through over a few days. The characters and plots are interconnected and it's a story about stories (plural). Read it fast to get the most connections.

mneely's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

saneyah's review

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4.0

❝ The truth is infinitely more complicated, that we are all beautiful even as we are all part of the problem, and that to be a part of the problem is to be human. ❞

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cloud Cuckoo Land is a book that inspires many, many mixed emotions in me. I thought it started strong, then slowed to a dreadful trudge through filler chapter upon filler chapter, and then concluded with one of the best ties across time and gorgeous, bittersweet, yanking-on-your-heart, never-getting-over-these endings I could hope for. I sped through the last quarter of the book in one sitting, but the middle 50% took me almost a month to read.

So, where did it fall short?

There was just too much and not enough going on at once. Every character had their own unique story, and as soon as you began to immerse yourself in Anna's treacherous journey for those next glimpses of hidden knowledge, or Zeno's aching journey through life and growth and war and love, or Konstance's apprehension-rebellion aboard her dystopian life, you were ripped from it and dropped in the middle of nowhere. And the plot itself crawled forward, despite the countless stories running at once.

I was going to give it a solid 3.5/5 until the last quarter; the ending stuck to me, attaching itself so vigorously that I can't help but give it a 4. Sue me. Anybody starts talking about time and legacies and the connectedness of humanity across generations and I'm already reading through the tears.

The high points of CCL were definitely its characters (and watching the plot come together with that ending— that ending!). Zeno and Omeir/Anna's storylines were standouts to me, with Seymour's being a little iffy (but as I'm not autistic, I can't truly speak on the depiction of such a strongly coded autistic character) and Konstance's being of least interest until around halfway through the novel. I don't need to elaborate on Doerr's stunning prose; it was well-suited to the twists and turns and varying subject matter of CCL. The idea was one I'm in love with, even now, but I think the execution — specifically, the pacing of the storyline and the divisions of the character perspectives — could have been much better.

Final Rating: 4/5

+ Pros:

— gorgeous writing
— vivid, real characters
— relevant themes about humanity and our relationships with nature, with time, and with each other
— the entire last section of the book. i have no words.
— almost made me cry (yeah i said what i said)

+ Cons:

— jarring changes in perspective that often pulled away from the story
— dragged significantly toward the middle

corgilover1's review

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adventurous hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

theoheart's review

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hopeful medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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