Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

37 reviews

pershie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

I knew simply from reading Anthony Doerr's most popular novel, All the Light We Cannot See, that I would likely enjoy every piece of writing of his that exists on this planet, and I was certainly not disappointed by Cloud Cuckoo Land. The novel throws the reader into a five-POV story that transcends centuries and continents, all centered around the themes of longing and self-discovery that are illustrated through Antonius Diogenes’ Cloud Cuckoo Land.

This novel was fantastic, drawing on incredible symbolism to illustrate the human experience while weaving five stories together in one. Doerr's writing style draws you in and provides depth while causing you to pause to reflect on how your own experiences and beliefs mimic those of the characters. I developed great empathy for many of the characters while also recognizing the struggles they each went through in their own times. Seeing multiple people's experiences throughout their lifetimes, some of which overlapped, also provided multiple sides to the same story, which showed that everything has a flip side and there can good and bad in everything.

This book completely lived up to the hype and now rests alongside All the Light We Cannot See as another one of my favorite novels. I look forward to exploring the remainder of Anthony Doerr's writings because he is a truly phenomenal storyteller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Deportation

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

TLDR: Beautifully written love story to story. 

 

Lushly written with an attention to detail in both the landscape and characters. The five main characters are diverse and fully realised.The future and historical sections are better written than many books of their genres. The chapters are generally short and have time, place and person headings so there is no guessing where you are or with who. The plot arcs of each character were easy to follow and satisfying in the end. I enjoyed the breakup of the novel with bits of Cloud Cuckoo Land though I am not an ancient literature scholar so don’t have any expertise in how well Mr Doerr executed a translation of a fictional codex. 

 

There is some arithmetic a reader could chose to do regarding time and distance which may give you a clue to something spoilerish ahead. Or it could be the author does not like to do arithmetic. I’m choosing to believe the former; which, when it clicked made me appreciate the intricacy of the book even more. Im a little shocked by how long it took me to tumble it. 

 

I empathised with Seymour the most and found his grief at what was happening to his forest to be the most heartbreaking. Those sections were the hardest to read as I looked at the pines older than me  outside my own window. I do not know what Constantinople or the other places were or will be like but I know that Mr Doerr nailed the pine forests east of the Cascades. 

 

In the end the book is not about heartbreak but the endurance of a story and the ability of stories to heal and sooth in the worst of times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Violence, War, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

congenital malformation, child neglect, child labour

itshrewsbury's review against another edition

adventurous emotional

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ekgranstro's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Sexual harassment

elisacarlene's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and War

Minor: Dementia and Death of parent

nat_2610's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-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? Yes

5.0

Anthony Doerr has done it again. I already loved "All The Light We Cannot See" but "Cloud Cuckoo Land" is even better.  The writing is as lyrical and descriptive and beautiful without being so purple it takes you out of the story. Doerr is an exceptional storyteller and I took my sweet time reading it, because I didn't want it to end. 

It takes us from times long past and almost forgotten into a possible, bleak kind of future. There is a clear warning in these pages of what we leave behind for those who come after us.
It is also the story of a girl and a boy that are born into less than fortunate circumstances, who manage to find their way in life despite everything that is thrown into their path.
In present day it shows us a man who finds some sort of redemption when he thought his life didn't account to much and a teenager who is sourrounded by people that want to push him into a mold in which he just won't fit.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Blood and War

20sidedbi's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-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

Holy shit. This is the best book I've... ever? read. I ugly cried at the end. So beautiful, so heartwrenching, so powerful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kllyholt's review

dark emotional hopeful 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

This was exquisite. 
The audiobook took a moment for me to get into because of all the changes in characters viewpoints and time jumps- but holy shit, it was worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gun violence, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

I listened to this as an audiobook. It is the kind of book the I loved the more further i got in the book. it is very unique and interesting in it's structure. I would recommend to people who like historical fiction, future past and "present" masterfully intertwined. it is a nice read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage, Self harm, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

relf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

I like Anthony Doerr's writing and really enjoyed his previous book, All the Light We Cannot See. Cloud Cuckoo Land is another set of interlacing stories that connect in the end, but these seemed even more contrived. In present-tense short narrative chapters, we follow an elderly Idaho man--with flashbacks to his service in the Korean War; a present-day troubled Idaho teen who becomes an eco-terrorist; a medieval girl in besieged Constantinople; a medieval Bulgarian farm boy drafted to serve in the siege; and a girl from the near future on a multi-generational space voyage whose mission is to establish a settlement on a very distant planet. Loosely connecting the stories is an ancient--even to the medieval characters--Greek manuscript, Cloud Cuckoo Land, telling the (made up by Doerr) adventures of a shepherd who turns into a donkey. The value of stories and of libraries, and of people who don't quite fit in, runs through the book, perhaps a bit heavy-handedly. I enjoyed the stories and Doerr's prose for the most part, and perhaps that's enough recommendation for a book. What I found hard going: the spaceship story--I'm just not a sci-fi or post-apocalypse fan; the environmental stuff, because that topic already fills me with dread; and the suffering of various animals.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, and War