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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
It gets really good towards 40% of the book once you're fully invested. The characters are great and well drawn. The metaphor of invisible light is awesome – I could write an essay about it. It reinforces a lot of beliefs in me about the senselessness of war, and how while some people will try to take advantage of a bad situation, humans as a whole will try to be good to each other. I find the ending as wholesome as a novel about WWII gets, though I'm not sure I forgive the author. The only thing I would complain about is the way I find it hard to conjure the descriptions, but it's probably because I often read more accessible stuff than this book.
I didn't pick this book up and go, "Hey, a historical fiction book about the holocaust, this will have a happy ending", but damn, this book low key traumatic. Read at your own risk.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.5 stars! This was such a beautiful story and the writing was exquisite. I simply adored the way Doerr described scenes, sounds, smells, sights, & emotions throughout. I felt like this was a great example of the “show don’t tell” principle of writing. It was a bit predictable and the ending wasn’t particularly grandiose, but I thoroughly enjoyed the rapid-fire change in POVs (even though it was hard to follow at times) because of how it seemed to mirror the rapidity of bombs dropping and the overall unpredictability of war. Highly recommend!
4.5/5 ⭐️
All in all, the fact that this took me 3 months to read says a lot. It was a very slow read that required your full attention. But not because important plot points were being made, simply because the authors descriptive writing demands to be felt in order to be understood. He writes about scenery and sound in ways that have to be fully absorbed and felt as much as the characters are feeling them. Without that level of commitment to this book you’ll fly through it without ever having grasped the meaning. Life is fleeting and full of pain. But there are small pleasures. The sea. And fresh air. Shells, bikes, the sound of music lifting through windows, BREAD. This book is about surviving. The characters in this book are survivors. Those small pleasures are how they survived.
I took off half a star simply bc sometimes I didn’t feel like reading 3 pages about the feeling of snails sucking on cave walls. But I admit that’s more personal preference and less about how good this book actually is.
All in all, the fact that this took me 3 months to read says a lot. It was a very slow read that required your full attention. But not because important plot points were being made, simply because the authors descriptive writing demands to be felt in order to be understood. He writes about scenery and sound in ways that have to be fully absorbed and felt as much as the characters are feeling them. Without that level of commitment to this book you’ll fly through it without ever having grasped the meaning. Life is fleeting and full of pain. But there are small pleasures. The sea. And fresh air. Shells, bikes, the sound of music lifting through windows, BREAD. This book is about surviving. The characters in this book are survivors. Those small pleasures are how they survived.
I took off half a star simply bc sometimes I didn’t feel like reading 3 pages about the feeling of snails sucking on cave walls. But I admit that’s more personal preference and less about how good this book actually is.
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, War
Minor: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Excrement, Antisemitism, Murder, Gaslighting