Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - O Grande Círculo

Great Circle takes the top spot for the longest book I’ve read in a while (608 pages/25 hours!) but the author absolutely deserves every award it has won!
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Nothing short of an epic saga, Great Circle spans multiple generations and reaches (literally) around the world. Marion Graves attempted to fly a great circle from pole to pole in 1950, but disappeared during the last leg of her journey. ✈️ Yes, this is a story about flying but it is also so much more. It’s the lengths to which Marion would go to achieve her dream of being a pilot during a time when women generally couldn’t hold such a career. It’s her struggles against her controlling husband and her attempts to find true love. It’s her twin brother Jamie’s journey to becoming an artist. And fast forwarding 60 years, it’s actress Hadley Baxter’s experience playing Marion in a movie about her astonishing feats. And I’d be remiss not to mention the shipwrecks, LGTBQ, bootlegging, WWII, brothels, and Great Depression that all add to the myriad of plot lines. Summed up in a line from the book, “Hope shouldn’t be so expensive.” 💔
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I was admittedly intimidated by the size, which is why this signed copy of the book has sat on my shelves for over a year. I eventually listened on audio during a long road trip & loved it. The only parts I didn’t care for were the early chapters of Hadley Baxter & the sexual abuse. (Definitely look up or DM me for trigger warnings, because there are several but they relate to spoilers so I’m not listing them here) While the beginning can be confusing, stick with it.

Content Warnings

eggpilot's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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hazelgirl21's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.25

Content Warnings

vikkom's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

5.0

This piece of fiction HITS on so many levels once it's finished. Judging by my engagement at the start I was definitely not expecting how many moments throughout that I would read a sentence and just sit there and stare and ponder, or bookmark to write down once I get up after keeping on reading.

I thought this book was going to be about this random lady Marian Graves attempting a north-south circumnavigation, and the fictional actress Hadley being fascinated and throwing herself into the history of Marian in preparation for the role. The book is about that, but I'd say that it's only about 10% that.

The rest of the book is about Marian Graves, and the people she loved and loved her, from before birth, to death; it is about Hadley, the starlet, and her journey with the pressures of hollywood, acting, falling in lust, and being... drawn to Marian and also knowing and feeling uncomfortable with the fact that the Marian she is playing is almost entirely reconstructed.

This book paints the sweeping arc of Marian's life, and the lives of the people that were most important to her. It deals with feeling multiple, contradictory feelings at once; it deals with estrangement from people you love; it deals with loving people and yet hating them; it deals with queer love in the 40s and 50s; it deals with the what-could-have-beens while acknowledging that sequences of events have a certain inevitability and circularity; and overall, it deals with the messy and complex and less-than-idyllic ways that humans connect. Lives are lived, opportunities are lost. People die. We go on.

N.B. one thing I would say though, is that it took me over half of the book (no small feat, it's a solid 300 pages) to actually get *into* the story. I think mainly because I wasn't expecting a grand sweeping whole-of-life tale, but the book comes around in a nice circle, once I realised that was what it was.

Content Warnings

chameleonhound's review against another edition

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adventurous

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

Content Warnings

sib_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

3.0

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isabelgalupo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.75

A really gorgeous, sweeping book about ambition, illusion, and fated connections. Bonus points for depicting complicated women without judgment and

a steamy bisexual love triangle set in the past

. This is my favorite type of novel, one that spans many decades and weaves together plots and destinies. Only knocking it down .25 because I wanted a smidge more closure surrounding Harley’s story.

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juli_powers's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.5

This book primarily follows two story lines - the life of Marion Graves and that or Hadley who is cast as Marion in an indie film on her life. The author focuses on Marion and has an easy to follow quick note to begin each chapter that tells you where you are chronologically. While it occasionally jumps, it's quite easy to tell where and when you are. Marion, her brother Jamie and their friend Caleb have a rough childhood and all take different paths in life. Marion is dead set on flying planes and will do anything she can, including cropping her hair and dressing like a boy to smuggle moonshine for money, to do so. Meanwhile Hadley lost her parents in a plane crash and is similarly raised by her uncle until his untimely death. Hadley is wealthy from her movies and TV shows, but otherwise a mess. She ends up on a mission to discover what really happened with Marion and her plane disappearance.

The one thing that threw me is that there are so many characters. It can be hard to recall who someone is. The author is quick to provide a back story on someone new and cleverly ties then into the story itself. This book ended and I returned to reread the beginning as it captures Marions thoughts before her final leg of the flight and it was great to reread it. This book was a wild ride that I just didn't want to put down.

"I thought I would become more than I am, but instead I know I am less than I thought.

No one should ever read this. My life is my one possession.

And yet, and yet, and yet."

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