Reviews tagging Genocide

When We Cease to Understand the World, by Benjamín Labatut

9 reviews

espringer43's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

2 stars removed for very unnecessary pedophilia that went on for way too long

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Genocide, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, and War

lipka's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

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

        Un verdor terrible is... blue, black, and devastating. It's a strange moment: the reality and unreality folded together, nonlinear and noneuclidean. You really could blot out the sun with this book. Hold it just high enough—the shadow it casts is a dark, ancient thing.

        The chapters fling themselves in all directions at breakneck speed. A comet, and a coma. "What wind drags it off with the fury of an angel cast out from heaven, falling, and falling, and falling?" Only the tail end of it can tell.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Suicide, Suicide attempt, War, Medical content, Sexual content, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexism, Dysphoria, Antisemitism, Drug use, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Rape, Vomit, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Xenophobia

turtleghost's review against another edition

dark informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Absolutely fascinating book, the storytelling was masterful, well done to the author and translator! Would hugely recommend to anyone interested in physics/mathematics/chemistry or history around the world wars- but I would not recommend if you are disturbed by imagery of chemical warfare, mental breakdowns or the romanticisation of a minor. Definitely challenging themes, but this book explores the dark history behind the discoveries that have created the world as we know it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Death, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Suicide, Rape, Pedophilia, Excrement, and Vomit

caties_books's review against another edition

dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.75

I am fully ready to admit that maybe I'm not as smart as all the people who love this book or maybe I'm not the right audience, but I didn't understand this book at all. It's a very confusing type of not understanding because I read the description again after reading and yes, I did read about and comprehend all the things mentioned, but overall, I was just left unsettled and confused. I don't like not knowing which parts were true and which weren't. I don't understand the point of the book. There wasn't any sort of cohesion that felt solid to me, it felt scattered and separate. Idk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Suicide, Antisemitism, Infidelity, Child death, Death, Death of parent, War, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Violence

samferree's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

The closest comparison I can think of to the style and content is Erik Larson's narrative non-fiction. I'm honestly not sure what parts are fiction since I was already familiar with some of the history and biographies of the characters and none of the major points appear to be inaccurate. I assume people just are not sure how to classify it and so opted for "fiction." While I enjoyed and was fascinated by this book, I also do worry that it promotes a somewhat unfortunate and harmful narrative as a "mad genius" who discovers knowledge so profound and devastating that it ruins them as people. Though, that appears to be what did actually happen to several of greatest minds of the 20th century who developed theories in physics, mathematics, and chemistry that have changed our world and not always for the better. Which I do appreciate as a foil against the tendency to celebrate genius and breakthroughs as necessarily good when that is not always the case.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Drug use, Genocide, Addiction, Mental illness, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

A lot of the book is preoccupied with some of the worst atrocities in human history and how our understanding of science made them possible. It's inevitably extremely disturbing, but I don't think the author was needlessly graphic so much as frank.

alyx's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I'm still trying to figure this book out. I'm not sure what I think about it, but I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time. A frequent word I've heard used to describe When We Cease to Understand the World is "haunting," and I can't imagine a more apt descriptor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Animal death, Pedophilia, Chronic illness, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Cancer, Child death, Antisemitism, Drug use, and Genocide

schiz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide and Pedophilia

astridrv's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

An exhilarating read, although very masculine and quite sexist. I learned a lot in 200 pages and lemme tell you: the history of science is stranger than fiction. If tropes about lone geniuses piss you off don't read this.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia and Genocide

Minor: Chronic illness and Sexual assault

fugitive_words's review against another edition

4.25

Benjamin Labatut is devastatingly clever with his blend of fiction and fact.  Describing the tortured lives of mathematicians and physicians from Schwarzschild and Mochizuki to de Broglie and Schrödinger, he uses fiction to round out the details of their biographies and imagine in what conditions such minds attempted to comprehend the rules of reality. I can’t pretend to have understood all, if any, of the mathematical ideas in question, but Labatut makes the overarching excitement and fear around the limits and new depths of physics viscerally tangible. Would recommend for lovers of maths, science, and literature alike. 

As Mark Haddon has said of the work, “it feels as if he has invented an entirely new genre.” Labatut uses the blend of imagination and reality to truly make us confront and question what happens When We Cease to Understand the World. 

'Blurb': A work of fiction and biography following the lives of mathematicians and scientists as they grapple with new theories and discoveries and their sometimes incomprehensible consequences.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Medical trauma and Ableism