Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez

10 reviews

lakeofstars's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

this book was hand catered for me i think

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Medical content, Violence, Colonisation, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

letsgoevie's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Death, Torture, Child abuse, and Suicide

laurareads87's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Beautiful, devastating, and brilliant. The Vanished Birds has a lot that I love: strong character development, an interesting multi-POV structure, and a clear anti-capitalist spirit.  This does not read like a debut novel; I can't wait to read more from Simon Jimenez.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Colonisation, Torture, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death, and Medical content

kierstyn's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

very slow paced. 

this book had soo much potential to create incredible worlds out there in space. this entire book is about jumping around to other planets. what are these planets like? what are the animals like? are the people humans? any different kinds of flora/fauna than earth? instead we get taken to different worlds and all we are told is "this one has an ocean. this one has two red suns." maybe it wasn't the point of the book, but I thought it would have made the world building so much cooler. 

there were some paragraphs that could have been cut out from this book and we still would have gotten the same understanding. it does drag in some places more than it needs to. and I think the plot could have gone a lot deeper. I mean the whole middle of the book is just them waiting around...

also I hate nurse lol. love sartoris

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Child abuse

Moderate: Death

vsnuffles's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

"It felt like a funeral." - William Shatner describing his voyage to space in the Guardian. I read the article today and couldn't help being reminded of this book.

This was an excellent and incredibly depressing read. I recommend reading it with caution due to just how very sad it is - it's definitely worth it but you'll want to be ready for some self-care afterwards. Do not expect a happy ending unless you like being very sad.


More in-depth:
The world-building is excellent: it's such a well thought-out future setting and the details of it are so elegantly incorporated it never feels like too much or too little. The writing was so good it was almost poetic at times, it was quite beautiful and poignant. The characters are grey and interesting. You get to see how they impact each other and the book has an excellent way of zooming out through the first few chapters, expanding the world before it settles on a more continuous story. It is a very bleak story and world, quite dystopian in a way that would feel cyberpunk if it were more focused on the digital world. Some mild spoilers for the tone of the ending/story overall:

I felt as though what hope there was for the characters was relentlessly crushed after being built up. To be fair, I think that this tone is set up well in the first chapter. But it is common for stories to pick up after tragedy and I would argue this one does not really pick up by the end in tone and the dystopian society is only more dystopian by the end.

If I had to say the story has a theme woven throughout I would have to say it is about cruelty and exploitation of humans through colonialization and capitalism. There is plenty more going on in the very well written characters, how they are shaped by their traumas in good and bad ways and being able to see how they grow based on how they react to their circumstances.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Physical abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Blood, Alcohol, Murder, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Deportation, Confinement, and Sexual content

gladiolus17's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.75

(Listened on audiobook, sorry for any misspellings)

Lovely, subtle writing. Each chapter was like a short story, each with their own arc and a message to tell. I found myself mulling over each chapter after they ended and thinking about them long after I finished reading.

As the story went on, I found that some of the plot points weren’t foreshadowed, and I’m not sure if that was because I missed it in the audiobook, or if there really was no foreshadowing or development here. To be specific:

I did not understand why Fumiko chose to study the Jaunt, why the Allied Space destroyed her research lab (in particular how Fumiko broke contract), why Vela betrayed Nia, and what was the Kind One who helped Ahrow, whether it be a figment of his imagination, or part of the afterlife. I understand that Oden implied that Allied Space was shitty, but I didn’t glean from anything that they would be a hint on why they would destroy Fumiko’s research lab.

 Because these were left unsolved, I felt confused rather than satisfied like I had early in the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gun violence

astroprojection's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Dementia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

johannab's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

internationalreads's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

amandaquotidianbooks's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Large pacing and tone shifts, which made it difficult to connect with the characters. The story starts out fairly hopeful, but gets really dark. I enjoyed the subtle world building and that the homosexual and asexual representations was seamlessly integrated into the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Suicide, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual content