Reviews tagging 'War'

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

20 reviews

marxxx's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

most of this book left me sitting with a weird discomfort—the narrator and his partner are both complicit in a lot of really heinous things, and violence against Black and Indigenous people abounds. but I found it informative, and found the discomfort to be something worth examining, and the end of the book made me cry. 

The writing style takes some getting used but it adds something very unique and personal to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bee1009's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Colonisation, and War

macaronis_telegraph's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

Format of the book is frustrating - While Barry does succeed at crafting a distinct voice for his main character, it also for some reason meant that every paragraph was multiple pages long, creating a constant wall of text on every page, allowing for an uninviting read. 

Author also fails to address in any light the horrendous parts of the past he writes about. He writes in detail his characters partaking in the repeated slaughter of Native Americans both before and after the civil war, but because the characters partaking in the murder are gay and rescue one little girl, everything is okay right? I think not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War

dagsywagsy43's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, and War

Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia

shinysarah28's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and War

veronicats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-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: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol

lukebryan's review

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

0.5

I suppose I didn't quite understand the great reception that Days Without End has, as I just didn't find anything to take away from it. As a novel that seems to be self-reflective, there is a strange disconnect that I found between the treatise of self-discovery the book focuses on and the colonial line against indigenous Americans that toes the settler line. The prose itself also didn't do anything for me, with the descriptions of war being almost boilerplate in its descriptions of the horrors present, leading to a novel that felt at odds with itself while not capitalising on itself. Finally, the central romance that drives the book was altogether uncompelling to me, as it seems to fade into the background at several points to almost deny itself. I really wish it foregrounded it more, as that was the novel's impetus.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

lexarobinson's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

0.5

Although this book has been well-received critically, I simply failed to see the hype. Barry's writing feels forced and doesn't flow nicely, and although he attempts to place LGBT+ representation in a novel about the American Civil War, it is dripping in so many stereotypes it doesn't feel truly authentic. It was incredibly difficult to follow, with its plot twists simply too predictable to be shocking. Not a fan.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

friends2lovers's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Excrement

lavendl's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Vomit, Grief, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cannibalism and Alcohol