Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira by José Saramago

23 reviews

random19379's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia

snailysnail's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense medium-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Minor: Gore, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Car accident

jayvdw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.25

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Sexual harassment

comino's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Eerie, revolting at times. So, so good. The story takes you hostage and you cannot stop reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

amandadelbrocco's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

soffeg6's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

abijmieds's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.0

Do yourself a favor and check the content warnings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

gentle_garbage_baby's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I don't know what to feel about this book. It starts off interestingly enough, with the writing style unique as a wall of text - barely any punctuation. After a few chapters I came to realise that this style

might reflect the blindness of the characters - they can't see - and therefore can't read - so the author makes it harder for the you as the reader to read the book.

I might be looking too much into that but it's how I understood the choice to write like this. After a while the text got easier to read, but it became more boring than anything else.

I have a few problems with the characters as well. If I was to describe the doctor's wife in any way, I would say she's the type of person to run along the tracks when a train is coming towards her; not sideways to get out of the way of it. Many of the characters at some point say things which I think are supposed to be profound and and philosophical, but they mainly came across as annoying and pretentious.

I really wanted to like this one; I thought the premise was super interesting, but in the end whole thing just kind of annoyed me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

stephanieanneauthor's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This story is a fascinating, and dark, look at humanity. The whole thing plays out like a social experiment - what would happen to us if we all suddenly went blind? By refusing to name the characters, it adds to the dehumanizing effects of the story. And by occasionally omitting to note which character is speaking, it adds to the confusion. Unfortunately, because of this lack of identifying information, I felt that some scenes dragged on a little too long. But overall, I enjoyed this bleak, hypothetical examination of the human race. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

tmbrundage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Compelling and thoughtful book, but graphic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic