Reviews with content warning for Incest - A Anomalia

I loved this book! Very different form anything I’ve read before - a combination of strong characters, literary fiction, philosophical questions, social commentary, and a hint of sci-fi. I loved the style and subtle humour of Le Tellier’s writing. I do agree that the sub-plot surrounding Sophia felt unnecessary and gratuitous and could turn some people away who otherwise would enjoy the book. Not for everyone but I devoured it!

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crizzle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

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amiegold's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-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

2.75

I really wanted to like this book. The first third is essentially background on the characters and their lives. Because the main characters include everyone on the plane, this took a long time just jumping around and hearing a little bit about each of the main characters. Once the 'anomaly' actually occurred, I was sucked in and really loved the next 10 or 20% of the story. However, the second half was less enjoyable. I don't want to spoil anything, but I felt that the book was almost poking fun / blaming world religions. I find this to be in bad taste, just as I would find a book poking fun at race, weight, sexual or political orientation. I felt the idea could have been delved into with more respect, even if the main characters are not religious themselves.

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eliel's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

The book has fascinating story concept, beautiful characters and great writing.

For me this was the perfect book to read right now. It tied together so many things I have heard and read lately. Definitely a book I can get back to eventually.

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ollie_again's review against another edition

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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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znvisser's review against another edition

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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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lesenilpferd's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-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? No

4.0

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