Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Klara and the Sun

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

21 reviews

lonelamplighter's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

Klara and the Sun is a difficult book to read, both because of the heartwrenching subject matter (chronic illness, looming death, etc) and because of the narrator. Ishiguro has managed to create a narrator that is both reliable and incomprehensible--Klara herself is extraordinarily observant, but lacks the human perspective that we have (and can see things that we cannot). Because of the gap between our understanding of the world and hers, it is often difficult to parse exactly what is going on via her descriptions, but I never felt like I was utterly lost in the narrative.

This is definitely a book that, if possible, you should read in tandem with other people so that you can discuss it. If you're reading it on your own, as I did, I would recommend that you simply roll with the punches. Don't get too stuck on particular details or sentences... drift through the narrative and let it wash over you. It all comes together, in the end. Trust the process.

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littlehibou7's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

5.0

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nicoles_reading_corner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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sunny_not's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

It was a great read. The descriptions of scenery reminded me of classics and overall it read like a classic. Slow but beautiful. Although it was a book filled with hope I felt that it was quite sad.

However, after this beautiful and emotional story, the ending felt very unsatisfactory to me. Klara deserved much better.

Still I would recommend it.

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lex_y's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

I feel like this book lacked the courage of its convictions—it didn’t explain the mysteries but also didn’t leave them unexplained enough to be a freewheeling unreliable narrator sort of a story.

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sophieduncan's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

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melplays9000's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

4.5

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this one. The concept was quite unique and Klara was such an interesting character to be in the perspective of. I loved seeing her throughout her life with Josie and her family. I read this as an audiobook and I thought her tone translated very well into that format and it made the story feel as though Klara was looking back and recounting her life back to me. I was very worried about this being a translated book, I thought the language would be overly simplistic and maybe wouldn’t be done very well. But I was definitely surprised, this book wasn’t difficult to read and understand at all and I never felt that the fact that it was originally written in Japanese impacted my enjoyment in any way other than positively.

This book was very casual. Nothing spectacular happens, there’s no epic quest or particularly growth from the main character. We just see the world around her grow up and change while she stays the same. This made for a good read to just read in small chunks. The ending was sad but hopeful and I overall enjoyed my entire experience reading this. Would definitely recommend, 4.5 stars.

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rileyeffective's review

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medium-paced

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

3.25

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teresareads's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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caidyn's review

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reflective 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? Yes

3.75

This is a hard one. At some points this book was amazing and I was amazed by it. It felt like an add-on of Never Let Me Go at those times. Then at others I felt it was too "deep" for me to understand the real meaning.

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