Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

A Anomalia by Hervé Le Tellier

22 reviews

atamano's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Pedophilia, Blood, Hate crime, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Suicide, and Confinement

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, and War

imyril's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

A quick read that’s about as interesting as a cereal box - Le Tellier likes to experiment with form, but the result is dissatisfying when approached as the SF novel it is framed as, The Anomaly consisting of only a thin plot and flat characters. More of a concept or a thought experiment than a fully-fledged SFnal read. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide, Child abuse, Homophobia, Murder, and Terminal illness

charlin's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Suicide, Death, and Homophobia

eelfleece's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

I wanted to like this book, but it was missing something when it came down to the interwoven points of view. There wasn't enough exploration of the scifi aspects or what they meant for the world, and the constant flowery interjections got a bit much. 

Really interesting concept, worth reading, but wish it had been better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness and Homophobia

iliune's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Homophobia, Hate crime, Cancer, Pedophilia, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Torture, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Incest

bre88's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Incredible. A truly unique and multi layered story with diverse perspectives from a large group of characters. Somehow the writer successfully builds worlds around  characters who span the globe and brings authenticity to all of them. I can’t wait to read this one again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Confinement

Moderate: Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Medical content, Gun violence, Suicide, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit

lautreamont's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Murder, Homophobia, and Self harm

Moderate: Hate crime and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

znvisser's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.0

I picked up this book because I was intrigued by its premise, and ended up bonding with some interesting characters too. However, none of it was really explored in-depth, because the author tried to cram EVERYTHING into a limited number of pages: there are storylines before, during and after discovering the divergence, and wayyyy too many characters along the way. The author uses all their storylines to explore as many relational, philosophical and political themes and ideas as possible and as a result of all this, nothing really exceeds superficiality.

Furthermore, I ran into quite a few of my pet peeves, which didn’t contribute to my reading experience. The author, through his instrument of the storyteller, exudes an air of arrogance: women are described through a male gaze (even when Lucie meets herself), Nigeria and the US through a European gaze, and religion through an atheist gaze. There was no reason to not explore this more humbly. And on a less serious note: I just don’t enjoy writers writing about writing. It only works for me in very few instances, and this was definitely not one of those. It was made worse by the writer in this book having written a book called ‘the anomaly’ too, which kept popping up so often it became quite central to the story, even quoting from its imaginary pages as if it were the most brilliant thing ever written. Was this supposed to be clever, or funny? Similarly, was it supposed to be clever or funny to make a caricature out of a president that has hurt so many lives? 

For me this story would have improved immensely by just sticking to the relational aspect through a limited number of characters. Now it was just an ok read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Racism, Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

lizreadsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.5

What to say about this book without spoiling it? The first 150 pages are like a series of short stories detailing the lives of relevant characters, but I found the pacing to be slow. When the big sci-fi reveal happens, it’s interesting, but we largely move away from those characters into philosophical musings and existential angst. I think that this book is a bit confused as to whether it wants to be about the characters themselves or about the author’s own navel gazing about the hows and whys of the “human experience.” There are too many characters to care about, and then we don’t get enough resolution on their individual stories for them to matter. I read this quickly in hopes that it would be outstanding, but I came away a bit disappointed in the end. Also, check content warnings before diving into this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide