Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Le Grand Livre by Connie Willis

40 reviews

sby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Misogyny and Grief

ava15's review against another edition

4.25

I loved so many things about this book: the dark academia vibes, the medieval setting, the surprisingly poignant ending; however, I also had some problems with it. For one thing, it could have been much shorter, and there were parts that dragged unnecessarily. For another, the lighthearted tone in the first half did not prepare me at all for how utterly devastating, and at times disturbing, the last quarter of the book was. It was a beautiful story, but the first and second halves felt like completely different books to me. I also had trouble getting into it bc of the perspective switching, but that’s more of a me problem

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, and Vomit

sskroh's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

zophiebrown's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

An eerily prophetic look at the modern response to a pandemic. Thought-provoking take on both history and current events, told through lovable characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Blood

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Sexual harassment

Eerily reminiscent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

chrisscorkscrew's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow!  A searing and heart-rending masterpiece.  Very powerful and perhaps rendered all the more so by the pandemic we experienced at the start of 2020.

This is not an easy rate, but it is worth the emotional journey,

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

chandlery's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Suicide

katjacatbeans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

The story craft of this book is impeccable. It's a real masterclass in plot building & character development. The prose & dialog are equally good - though I'm pretty sure that '"Yes," said Dunworthy' appears at least 100 times (it fits his character) - and it's heart-rending in all the right places.  

There are certainly some grotesque descriptions of illness, but it's not overwrought and is balanced between portraying the reality of the character's experience & sparing the reader. 

The text lives up to its title. It's bleak, and sad. The direness is broken up by having 2 storyline ( 1 in each century) and by Finch's comic relief. Finch is so important because this book is prescient; having just lived through COVID, it's absolutely wild to read that an author in 1992 would so accurately project a lot of the attitudes and difficulties of 2020. Human behavior doesn't really change that much, i guess. All she had to do was look back at the 1918 epidemic & update it a bit for modern elements (like faster turnaround on vaccines). Even the brief mention of "the Canadian Goose Flu of 2010" in the book is utterly wild because there WAS an outbreak of avian flu from December 2010-May 2011. Surely that was just happenstance but with everything else she got right, it's eerie. 

I really, really appreciate how well the medical stuff is researched (I've listened to a LOT of This Podcast Will Kill You and can verify that the book text lines up with the info in the episodes on cholera, typhoid, etc) and how determined the characters are to help care for each other. It's one of the few hopeful bright spots.

All in all, even though this is a 26hr audiobook, I'm sad to be finished with it. I wish it was longer; an epilogue would do my heart a lot of good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal death and Grief

achilliad's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

Doomsday might have been the most fun I've had reading since I was a child. I have some friends who found some plot points unnecessarily drawn out, but I was having so much fun with the characters that it didn't matter. This book does swap perspectives between characters every few chapters, which is not something I usually enjoy. I didn't enjoy it here either, persay, but considering how much trouble it usually causes me (not able to get invested in the new POV, frustration when my fav POV switches over) I felt it was fairly well done here. I think the primary reason it bothered me less is that Willis is good at emphasizing the tension between characters and their goals. While there were some chapters/sections that were less exciting or interesting than others, Willis is usually pretty good at creating the kind of tension that sucks you in.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

philosopher_kj's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, and Medical content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Rape, and Alcohol

pocketbook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this in middle or high school the first time around, and I didn’t remember the parts that took place in the “present time.” I remember being so gutted by

Father Roche’s death

and that I enjoyed this book, but not too many specifics beyond that. I’m so happy I revisited this one. Rerated because this will be staying with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Suicide