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joshoonet's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
- Different from anything I've read before for sure
- Has a very dreamlike atmosphere
- Mostly like it for the vibes and unique setting, plot is almost secondary
- There will be no answers
- Some beautiful descriptions
Graphic: Deportation and Dementia
Moderate: Confinement and Death
Minor: Sexual assault, Body horror, and Pregnancy
Confinement/Sexual Assault:serendipity421's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Dementia, Grief, and Trafficking
Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual assault
leapyear_reader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Confinement, Stalking, Death of parent, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, Dementia, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Murder, and Terminal illness
bonnienoire's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Ableism
Moderate: Dementia and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual assault and Infidelity
bunntboy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Dementia and Police brutality
lilifane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It's set on an island where things keep disappearing. But they don't disappear physically, the people living on this island just collectively forget about them. Things like birds, roses, boats. When people wake up and feel something is missing they try to get rid of those things physically as well. If they kept birds, they let them free, if they planted roses in their garden, they destroy them. It's easy for them because once the thing is disappearded, they don't have any emotional connection to it anymore. All memories connected to the thing disappear as well. However there are people who still remember, who try to keep those lost thing and this is where the Memory Police comes into play. They confiscate those things and arrest the people.
The protagonist is a writer whose mother was able to remember and was taken by the Memory Police. So when she discovers that her editor remembers as well, she tries to help him and hide him from the police.
I think the book depicts a totalitarian regime in a very believable way, I felt the fear, hopelessnes and resignation. There were a lot of parallels to Nazi Germany. It just goes one step further and creates a truly dystopian world.
On the other hand it is beautifully written and creates this melancholic, heavy atmosphere that you feel in your bones. The premise was interesting and I loves the setting, the characters but there were some things that bothered me. Some parts of the story the protagonist was writing were very weird and disturbing, as well as the relationship between the protagonist and her editor in the second half of the book. And the ending.... it was very abstract and therefore hard to grasp for me. I mean, you can get a lot of great discossions out of this book and think about how words, stories, memories shape our world. But the ending let me downa bit. It has this "Then what was the point of this?" feeling.
Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Grief, Infidelity, and Police brutality
bookmarkie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Confinement and Police brutality
Moderate: Dementia
kpharoah's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Confinement and Dementia
Moderate: Toxic relationship