Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - A Tale for the Time Being

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

351 reviews

emilymckmak's review against another edition

emotional hopeful tense 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? Yes

5.0

Heartbreaking & beautiful, I loved learning about Japanese culture and language while also being transported to both Japan & PNW. Want to read all of Ozeki’s works now.

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valjeanval's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

One of the best books I've read in a long time. Theres's not one moment (or fingersnap of 65 moments) that hasn't been carefully thought through to create this beautiful exploration of time, entanglement, and a life (or a death) with meaning. The research that went into this book must have been incredible. Everything from the daily life of a Japanese high school student in Tokyo to neighborly mechanisms that keep a British Columbian island functionings to the realities of life as a WWII kamikaze pilot and the magical realism that is quantum mechanics. I care deeply for the characters. I feel like I've lived in the setting, and I savored the prose. I don't know what else you could ask for in a novel. It's my first Ruth Ozeki book, but definitely not my last.

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sandro_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective 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

3.75

A diary of a Japanese girl, Nao, washes up on the coast of British Columbia and is discovered by Ruth. A contemplative, split story that deals with heavy subject matter but ultimately leaves the reader with a sense of hope. It explores the relationship between writer and reader - working best from Nao’s perspective with footnotes teaching us about Japan.

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jaydeecepticon's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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pamscafati's review against another edition

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4.0

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stormbringer52's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

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

4.5

This book is a really tough read and took me a long time to finish. However, it was worth it. It made me incredibly uncomfortable in some parts, but that was the point. Ruth Ozeki did a wonderful job of representing unsettling topics in a way that felt real and disturbing. I found myself nervous to turn the page at times, worried what would happen next.

Brief spoiler for the end, but

it didn't make a lot of sense to me. I liked it, but it did feel a little out of nowhere. Granted, there were slight magical elements throughout, like how things that Ruth saw online suddenly disappeared, or Naoko conversing with her deceased great uncle. I suppose the end of the book meant to sort of explain why things were happening, but it kind of lost me honestly.

However, I still thing the book was beautifully written, so this does not impact my opinion much :]

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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emotional 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

5.0

I was absolutely surprised by how much I loved this book. I loved the dual timelines and wound up staying up just to finish the book so I could find out what happened to Nao and to Ruth. Nao's story was so heartbreaking, but so much of it felt so real. Following along with Ruth's journey as she tried to piece together what had happened was such an effective way of telling Nao's story and adding context to parts of it. I'm not even sure what else to say other than I'm so happy I picked this up, and I'm so excited to read more from Ozeki.

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