Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

6 reviews

mysimas's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Meditative look at humanity, civilisation, and the effect of an individual on the system at large. Some beautiful prose and impactful one-liners. Strong narrative voices of the individual POV characters. 

Plot-wise, some of the short stories were individually quite weak. The letters from Frobisher the composer were among the most enjoyable parts for me style-wise, but in terms of plot ended up quite unimpressive. I’d also have appreciated a stronger interconnectedness of the stories, such as if perhaps the incarnations learned from their past lives or were somehow directly influenced by them. What we have instead are fleeting mentions and references that have zero impact on the events.

An example for all - Frobisher commits suicide despite having read Adam Ewing’s diary, in which the latter laments the tragic suicide of a boy of about Frobisher’s age. But does this stop Frobisher or does he at the very least refer to it? Not at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

damjanotom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

At first the form of the book in the vernacular and perspective of each character in their context is quite jarring but as the fragmented pieces of the 6 stories that make up the book are tied together, the humanity of each character and the shared history of the cast comes together to a cohesive and profound whole.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

thinkingrobot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt

marissasa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

Cloud Atlas is a long, sweeping narrative with each chapter about a different person who is a reincarnation of the previous chapter's main character and the ways they are all interconnected despite existing in different eras experiencing wildly different situations. The theory was very cool to me and I was intrigued by the way that the book doesn't spell out any of the world-building sci-fi elements clearly, leaving the whole reincarnation idea up to interpretation for the most part. However, out of the 6 main characters, 4 were white men whose stories really paled in comparison to the 2 women's chapters. Luisa and especially Sonmi-451 carried this book in my opinion. While their chapters were engaging, action-packed, and full of social commentary, I felt the other chapters dragged on and were far less memorable. I even felt like the first character we were introduced to was by far the least interesting, which made it tough to read since his chapters were the very first one and the last one. Although I liked the premise I just wanted more in the execution from this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

marro98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, and War

interesting_struggle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism