Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - De stad der blinden

What happens when the world turns blind in a matter of weeks? That is the question the book tries to answer. It is an interesting delve into human nature when exposed to a sudden and drastic change in one's senses and conditions.

The book is very interesting and a lot of different events take place. It takes a little while before the main character, the doctor's wife, is presented. The only person left who can see but presents to be blind. Through her eyes we see the conditions put on the blind, the first hastily put up quarantine, fuelled by fear, the conditions that followed, and the world just shortly after everyone has turned blind in a matter of weeks.

The book however is written difficultly, what is said is only separated by a comma before and after the text, and it is not written down who said what. The task of figuring this out is left to the reader. This style fits very well with the book's themes and puts the reader into the mind of the blind.

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j4vin's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It's my favorite book. The book that made me realize what books I like. It's dark, it's confusing, and it will make you feel relieved once you finish it, but not during the rest of the reading although it will FOR SURE make you reflect. I mostly focus it on individualism of society, but could easily be interpreted a lot of other ways, which, to me, made it more interesting. Basically, the book opens so much questions without closing any of them. If you like that, good. If you don't, but are willing to give it a try, maybe get the audiobook (paper format makes it worse cause author decisions).

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amandadelbrocco's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I had a hard time with the rambling writing style of this. Not only are there no quotation marks, but there are also no line breaks so it made it very difficult to tell who was speaking, or if they were speaking out loud at all. The characters were also all unnamed which added to the confusion.

Plot wise, this was terrifying. It was also gross. I never really thought before about how the world would change so drastically if everyone in it went blind and I don't really want to continue thinking about it. Coupled with the fact that it emphasized just how blind many are to what is happening in society, it is definitely a book that will (unfortunately) haunt me.

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