Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Os Luminares

Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Os Luminares by Ana Falcão Bastos, Eleanor Catton, Cláudia Brito

11 reviews

eefmaoam's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I claimed to have read this book when I was a teenager, trying to be pretentious and well-read. I certainly didn’t as I remembered exactly nothing, not the plot or any of the characters, while reading it. But I’m *so* happy I didn’t read it back then, so I could enjoy it for the first time now, some years later.

This book was right up my alley, even though I wouldn’t have suspected it to be based on the genre/themes/descriptions. I love the way the story slowly unfolds, constantly switching perspectives, all the while being meta-critical of the genre itself AND the (developing) economic systems and its exploits (Yes, I wanted to be a pretentious teen while I wasn’t, but somehow still ended up becoming an adult who loves pretentious literature lol). The historical touches such as censoring some words, while using ‘whoring’ freely adds to the atmosphere and moody feel (haha, funny reference, so smart).

While reading I kept on whisking but also dreading Netflix would make this book into a limited-series; hoping because I wanted to see the world of Hokitika and all its residence and their stories come to life, dreading because I don’t think Netflix would or could do right by this beautiful story. Turns out the BBC did, so I’m off to watch that show!

I want to make more poignant points about the book and why you should read it, but I’m still a little bit too overwhelmed by the magnitude and beauty of this story. So, you should just read it yourselves if you want to know why I liked it so much ;)

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

Maybe it's because I read this book coming off of Covid, but this was the first book in a long time that I truly wanted to DNF. It just felt so impossibly long and dragged on forever. I didn't care about what was happening, and the characters all just felt bland to me. There were some unique moments that stuck out, but it felt they were few and far between. Rarely do you find a 500+ page book that needs to be that long, and this is a great example of a book that had no reason to be as long as it was.

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heather_freshparchment's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.5

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soph_mills's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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emmonsannae's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

As I was reading, I kept thinking how glad I was that this book was so long because it meant I would get to spend more time reading it… now that’s a good book! The plot was especially twisty, the pacing was exquisite, the characters were all dimensioned and flawed and brilliant. The ending was satisfying as well. Such a great read!

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serenspace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

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bill369's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I read this book for The StoryGraph Reads the World 2022 challenge.

The characters were complex, gripping and overall perfect. Nevertheless, I didn't grow to like them. I was more interested in the plot than the characters.

Twists, illegitimate bastards, séances, past disputes and an immense amount of money missing. Contained. The plot is fabulous! I must acknowledge that it was hard getting into the book. Primarily because of the high number of characters and their detailed descriptions. However, once I remembered who each character was, I was hooked. The story has a tremendous quantity of details. I am firmly impressed by that.

Page 480, unrequited love.

„(...) Vykládali jsme nesmysly a já plácla nějakou hloupost o neopětované lásce. A on mne zastavil a řekl, že neopětovaná láska není možná; že to potom není láska. Prý, že lásku je třeba dávat achronologicaljímat, aby se dvě rovnocenné poloviny spojily v celek, v milenecký pár.“

I was hoping the book would end with chronilogical summary of the events yet it didn't. Thankfully, this summary exists online therefore I understood what I didn't understand.

I'm proud I managed to read this book and understand the more extensive portion of it since it wasn't an easy read. I'm glad I read it because it was a personal challenge.

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