Reviews with content warning for Violence - Als je het licht niet kunt zien

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Als je het licht niet kunt zien by Anthony Doerr

250 reviews

hannahrb's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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agirlnamedellie's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Truly emotional read. Plot highlighted the true horror of WW2 but also the unity of people in the resistance. I loved Marie and her character arc and her family members. Also think that the disability representation in this book was well done. Enjoyed the switching of POV and how the two plots came together towards the end of the book. Will be thinking about the ending for a long time!

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kamrynharned's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Honestly, I think this book was a bit of a disappointment for me, especially compared to Cloud Cuckoo Land. Cloud Cuckoo Land was what I consider to be a textbook example of how to do multiple POV’s and timelines well, and this book fell far short for me. Each chapter being a different character felt very disjointed to me, especially when towards the end of the book, certain characters would get two chapters in a row for no apparent reason. The alternating timeline did make for lots of anticipation and helped the pacing quite a bit, but I did guess most of what you could call the “plot twists”. The writing was choppy, almost felt like it was trying too hard to be lyrical, and would go off on tangents during important moments of the plot, which actually led me to skip whole paragraphs occasionally. Seemed a little strange that he purposely built up an exciting, thrilling situation only to try and slow you down with long descriptions.

My other issue with the book was the ending, but not necessarily for the reasons many people don’t like it. I appreciated that it was realistic and everything didn’t end with rainbows and butterflies. The war was accurately depicted - war eats people alive and affects them for the rest of their lives. What bothered me was how rushed the ending was - you spent 400+ pages getting to know these characters quite deeply over a span of 4 years. and then in a matter of 20 pages, you’re watching the rest of their entire lives play out. I would rather the book have been longer and gotten to follow them more closely through the years after the war, or not at all. Especially because of the unnecessary the r@pe scene. And even after all of the explanation of what happened to each character, the book is still left open-ended with one of the biggest questions left unanswered.

All of the stars I have for this book really come from the characters. They had a lot of depth and many layers, the third person perspective gave the perfect amount of introspection without over-doing it, and they were imperfect but lovable. I think one of my favorite relationships was between Marie and Etienne.

Overall, this book doesn’t rank nearly as high as I thought it would on my list of favorite WW2 books because of the disjointed POV and rushed ending, but it was an exciting, well-researched book with well- developed, intentional characters.

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haleyreads32's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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neptyun's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

my heart is so sad and heavy

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messymimms's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Anthony Doerr stunned me with one of my favourite first reads of the year, a novel full of dizzyingly information rich prose and stories and characters I didn’t think I’d care about - but then I did.

I’ve been reading mostly queer and very contemporary or futuristic books for a while, but this reminded me that almost any story can be beautifully told. The storyline is perhaps less strong than the writing, but I don’t mind. There is predictability in tragedy.

“You know how diamonds—how all crystals—grow, Laurette? By adding microscopic layers, a few thousand atoms every month, each atop the next. Millennia after millennia. That’s how stories accumulate too. All the old stones accumulate stories”

Layers and layers exist in this book, and Doerr hones in on them with all the keenness of a jeweller examining facets of a diamond with a loupe. It could be overdone. It should feel overdone. But it works.

Doerr’s writing is palpable and synesthetic, echoing Marie-Laure’s heightened sense of smell, touch, taste and hearing. Towards the end, as the pace slowed and loose ends were being tied up, is the only time I felt - “Okay…this is a lot of words.” But, you know what, I forgive it!

I forgive it because I don’t know that I’ve seen - no, felt - metaphors like this before. The prose is full of images and comparisons that shouldn’t make sense but do, my favourite being: “in such moments Madame seems like a great moving wall of rosebushes, thorny and fragrant and crackling with bees.”

I think I’d like to be a rosebush woman one day.

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zarinamajid's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Finally finished this book after a while. It took me forever to read mainly because when I would set it down, I would not pick it back up again after a while. Although, when I would pick it up, I would find the book hard to put down. This book definitely captivated me and had me hooked throughout the entire thing. One of my favorites, if not my number one. I would recommend this to anyone, no matter your interests.

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