Scan barcode
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Medical content, Violence, Colonisation, and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Vomit
dlrosebyh's review
adventurous
emotional
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
Simon Jimenez, I was not familiar with your game.
I am not the same person pre-TVB and post-TVB. I’ve been hesitant to read The Vanished Birds because a lot of reviews said it was boring, and for me, no, it really wasn’t. And yes, it might be slow, and the chapters are long, but the pacing made perfect sense.
A lot of people compare The Vanished Birds to the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers. And if you know me, you know I loved that series. While that series is healing and comforting, this book will tear your heart into pieces, throw it against the wall, run it over by a truck, break it even more with a hammer, and pierce it with a sword. I was expecting a simple space found family moment, but noo, Jimenez had to break my heart a million times. My heart broke for every character in this story.
This book is so rich in many ways. The characters, the plot, the world building, the atmosphere, everything. I was so shocked to find out that this is Jimenez’s DEBUT NOVEL. Only a mastermind can do such. I loved how he used scientific explanations for the progression and the effects of capitalism. Those footnotes really intrigued me.
Character wise, I have a question for you, Mr. Jimenez. Did you somehow go through my brain while writing Nia? Because why is she SO ME. The way she tries to protect everyone and is willing to give up anything just to keep everyone safe made me sob so hard. I loved how she treated Ahro, and Ahro, my baby, I will protect you with everything I have. And don’t even get me started on DanaFumiko because I cried over them so many times.
In short, please read this book. Any bad mouth against it shall fall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Colonisation
Minor: Suicide attempt
avacadosocks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Colonisation, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, and Body horror
Minor: Suicide attempt and Sexual content
ostenreal's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, Body horror, Murder, 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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Colonisation, Torture, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death, and Medical content
charlotteregan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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
Started: 051923
Finished: 052023
Reviewed: 061223
I am not the same after having read TVB. Me taking too long to fully review this book says a lot about it. If you’ve read negative things about this book, don’t listen to them. DO NOT. I kid you not, you have to read this book.
Jimenez’s writing has me in awe, it perfectly captured my entire being just from its first chapter. His compelling and complex characters, alongside its vivid and incredible setting/plot, gripped me, making me not want to put the book down. Tbf, I was traveling while reading this book and when I reached the last chapter and the last lines, I forced myself to not cry because I was with my family and I wasn’t gonna cry there. But the night after I finished TVB, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how it made me feel so many emotions all at once. I have a thing for books that can elicit the strong and hidden emotions inside of me, yup.
The lines here about scientific progress and the effects of capitalism and the planet full of dogs and distancing yourself from others AND LITERALLY FUMIKO WERE INCREDIBLE, I HAVE NO WORDS. How did Jimenez debut with this novel?? HOW?? IS HE A MASTERMIND??? I will never know. The found-family here was even more insane.
ALSO FUMIKODANA. FUMIKODANA. I CANNOT TALK ABOUT THEM WITHOUT CRYING. LISTEN TO ILLICIT AFFAIRS AND CLOSURE BY TAYLOR SWIFT AND CRY WITH ME ISTG THEY WRECKED ME AND I WILL NEVER READ OR HEAR THE WORD CHERRY BLOSSOMS THE SAME ANYMORE.
Finished: 052023
Reviewed: 061223
I am not the same after having read TVB. Me taking too long to fully review this book says a lot about it. If you’ve read negative things about this book, don’t listen to them. DO NOT. I kid you not, you have to read this book.
Jimenez’s writing has me in awe, it perfectly captured my entire being just from its first chapter. His compelling and complex characters, alongside its vivid and incredible setting/plot, gripped me, making me not want to put the book down. Tbf, I was traveling while reading this book and when I reached the last chapter and the last lines, I forced myself to not cry because I was with my family and I wasn’t gonna cry there. But the night after I finished TVB, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how it made me feel so many emotions all at once. I have a thing for books that can elicit the strong and hidden emotions inside of me, yup.
The lines here about scientific progress and the effects of capitalism and the planet full of dogs and distancing yourself from others AND LITERALLY FUMIKO WERE INCREDIBLE, I HAVE NO WORDS. How did Jimenez debut with this novel?? HOW?? IS HE A MASTERMIND??? I will never know. The found-family here was even more insane.
ALSO FUMIKODANA. FUMIKODANA. I CANNOT TALK ABOUT THEM WITHOUT CRYING. LISTEN TO ILLICIT AFFAIRS AND CLOSURE BY TAYLOR SWIFT AND CRY WITH ME ISTG THEY WRECKED ME AND I WILL NEVER READ OR HEAR THE WORD CHERRY BLOSSOMS THE SAME ANYMORE.
It was the movement that did it. The way she tucked the nozzle against her right temple, until the nozzle became a cherry blossom, tucked behind her ear by a blond woman with purple eyes, and the pistol slipped from her trembling hand, clattering to the floor, as did her knees, as she wept, for after centuries, she remembered Dana’s name.
AND AHRO MY BABY. 😭😭😭😭😭😭 I CAN’T SAY ANYTHING SO I’LL JUST CRY.
LASTLY, NIA AND THE CREW OH MY GOD JIMENEZ WILL PAY FOR WHAT HE DID WITH THEM. 😭 NIA IMANI IS SO JUST LIKE ME IT’S SCARY HOW JIMENEZ WROTE HER.
I have no words anymore. If you wanna read this book, read it. If you don’t, I get it because who would wanna read 400 pages of grief?? NO ONE.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
quinnjuliac's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
5.0
This book was incredible. Sweeping story of finding nonbiological family and the ties that bind us, in a dysphoric future where the earth has been obliterated by climate change and misuse, and other worlds are created and then colonized by capitalism. Really beautiful, highly recommend. The first half seems to be more about the dysphoric world created by the author and traveling through it, and the second half is really about relationships and the love we find and lose, and how worth it these losses are.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Slavery, Child abuse, Torture, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Vomit
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.
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:
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.
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
kp_writ's review
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The kind of book that makes you feel like you accomplished something by finishing. And by that I mean it was dreadfully slow, and I had to work hard to keep my interest and understand the perspective shifts (that were confusing whether they happened chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph or towards the end even sentence by sentence). I'm very glad to have read it, and I think it's a book I may return to eventually for a reread, but it is not an easy read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Colonisation, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Dementia, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Suicide attempt
malhale's review against another edition
emotional
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt