Reviews with content warning for Car accident - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

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The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

58 reviews

peasandpancakes's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I loved the premise of this book and the general story line. It was a bit slow at times, but it picked up again in the last 150 or so pages.

My biggest problem was the tense. The second person tense was hard to get into, and I kept forgetting it had this tense, so I was confused by the wording every time I picked this book back up after a few days.

Also not sure I got all the intricacies with the different sides and beliefs, as I had almost no knowledge on Sri Lanka before reading this book and had to google something every few pages.

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jenna0818's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Seven Moons was a good read, I enjoyed the magical realism of exploring the transient world in between life and death. I like Maalis life and narrative and found his struggles really relatable and compelling. I think the book landed the plane and had a satisfying ending as well, I was happy with the character development and I think I found peace too. I’m not familiar with Sri Lanka at all but it was interesting to learn about it, not sure I grasped the politics fully but it wasn’t necessary to grasp the narrative arc. I think people who consider themselves spiritual regardless of religion will find things to reflect on in this story. This book took me a lot longer to read than other books just because it was at many times a depressing and tense read, hard to keep track of the factions, but that’s likely user error, I’m sure there was enough satire and humor to keep someone else more entertained.

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ebp's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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liesthemoontells's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This book was frustrating, dense, bleak, and aloof. It was also darkly funny, astute, and creatively brilliant.

I struggled with the first two thirds of this book, which felt like a protracted setting up of the world, characters, and backstory. I found the text impenetrable, the pace frenetic, and the storyline uneven. The second-person perspective placed me at a distance from the text, and this was made doubly alienating by what an unpleasant character the protagonist is. This perspective also made it harder for me to engage with the unfamiliar concepts and language used in the book, as I felt like my brain was already exhausted from filtering the meaning through a perspective filter.

This changed when I got to the final third of the book. I'm not sure if it just took me that long to get into the rhythm of it, or if the pacing and action substantially changed, but all of the elements came together for me and propelled me towards the conclusion. Was the last third of the book satisfying enough to make up for how much I struggled with the beginning? On balance? Just.

Other themes/aspects that came up for me when I read it:

- ethics of conflict photojournalism
- war and power
- mortality/the afterlife
- homophobia (both homosexuality and homophobia are portrayed pretty negatively in the book and the author also appears to be straight. For me this makes it a homophobic commentary on homophobia?)
- female characters (they are... Not well written)

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ko_rax's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective tense 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

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stalfos's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-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

4.5

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suryac's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

Despair always begins as a snack that you nibble on when bored and then becomes a meal that you have thrice a day

Do not be afraid of demons; it is the living we should fear. Human horrors trump anything that Hollywood or the afterlife can conjure. Always remember this when you encounter a wild animal or a stray spirit. They are not as dangerous as you

4.5⭐/5

There are books that make you dream about happy things and makes you feel excited about everything great in the world, and then there are books that keep you up at night, making you question how so much injustice can happen in a place, without anyone doing anything about it. This book definitely falls into the latter category.

I've known about the Civil War in Sri Lanka growing up, but weirdly enough, until reading this book, I couldn't grasp the amount of struggle, the people might have gone through in those periods. Especially the parts where, Maali interact with the ghosts of people killed during those times, it deeply affected me.

Even though Maali was trying to figure out what happened to him the entire book, I actually didn't care about that mystery as much as I loved the random stories in between, conversations with ghosts from various times, even though at times it was hard to follow the narration, with the author's choice of second person narration. I didn't think I would get used to it, but I did eventually and honestly it was a good choice.

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