novella42's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mental illness, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Vomit
Minor: Suicide
jessiejonesbentley's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Alcohol, Abandonment, Grief, Murder, and Death
caryndi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
The construction of the novel wasn't my main gripe, though. I cannot figure out the internal logic to this book.
Spoiler
We're introduced to an "anomaly" that takes place under a tree in Northwest Canada and an airship terminal in Kansas City (?) simultaneously, but also hundreds of years apart. We find out some time travelers from the future are investigating this anomaly, and the main investigator, Gaspary-Jacques, is warned not to change anything while traveling through time. However, he accidentally causes the glitch by being in the same place twice (sent back as a time traveler, he encounters and speaks to a version of himself who was stranded in time after interfering with the timeline).However, this glitch existed prior to his decision to become a time traveler -- in other words, the changes he made were always going to be made before he decided to make them. But, in other instances of time travel, that is not true! The Time Institute (I think that's the name used) tracks its agents by looking at historical records before and then after their visits to other times to see if anything changed in the timeline. So, in my mind, this glitch should not have existed for them to investigate because it was a change made by Gaspary-Jacques. Maybe the idea is that since it was a "glitch" it could exist in that paradoxical way that time-travel actions do. I don't know. But my brain kept bouncing off the way things played out and because of that, I don't think the entire story holds together.
That doesn't take away from the fact that the book was very atmospheric and technically well-written. I thought it was interesting that one of the main characters was the writer of a book about a pandemic, and at least one noted plot point matched the way things happened in Station Eleven. Like a little Easter egg. And it's fun to put together the pieces you pick up from the different time settings as you read. But the way the story falls apart if I try to think about it too hard outweighs the technical proficiency, in my mind, which is why this book only gets 3 stars from me.
Moderate: Death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Abandonment
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gun violence, and War
heather_harrison's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
* Slow burn plot
* Interconnected characters
* Time travel
* Processing the pandemic experience
* Meta science fiction
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Forced institutionalization, War, Death, and Abandonment
norwegianforestreader's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Suicide, War, Vomit, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Terminal illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Colonisation, Confinement, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexism
miller8d's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Spoiler
feeling of disappointment at the ending of the story: I was pulled to finish this book in two days because I was so excited to learn the explanation for the anomaly, and when I turned the final page, I said “Oh, come on” out loud because I did not feel like I got one at all in the moment. I found the twist exciting and sweet and logical but emotionally frustrating at first. But since I completed the book twenty minutes ago, I’ve realized I’m not actually disappointed because that is actually the most natural and truthful ending there ever could have been, and it rings true to the entire story, to the nature of time and space and boring explanations for exciting anomalies. It shines light on the entire hero’s journey and disarms us with a lonely sense of naked responsibility over the choices we make and especially over the universally lackluster inevitability of the logical consequences of the choices we make. I also really love how Mandel softly infused a strong clarity of anti-colonization and anti-cop sanity throughout the actions and beliefs of the lovable characters— refreshing to read a sci-fi/fictional/apocalyptic piece that doesn’t bury the lead of what evils are obviously leading us toward the darkness (colonization and cops, etc.), and refreshing to read any fictional book that pursues a leftist narrative through world-building and plot points, instead of just veering recklessly into harmful tokenization, superimposed racial dynamics written by a white author, and so on. I also just realized I liked the red herring of Vincent falling off into the sea— at the time, I was 100% sure she’d been teleported by the anomaly and that we must meet her later on. Fun to think that perhaps she did teleport somehow but that we’ll never know because Gaspery never knows.Note: I pictured Gaspery as Jacob Wysocki from College Humor.
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Forced institutionalization, Death, Mental illness, War, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Deportation, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Police brutality, and Body horror
Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Car accident
I’m quite a sensitive person and even I’d say that despite the content warnings for this book, it is not an upsetting read (at least for me). The mentions of upsetting topics are justified and unsurprising in the context of the book, and very rarely is any upsetting detail given for the sake of indulgent displeasure. The bits that did upset me wereSpoiler
the bit about someone losing both their two partners tragically to sudden death, and the gnarly set of detailed memories toward the end of the book about a veteran’s battlefield trauma.itsheyfay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Confinement, Abandonment, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Minor: War, Racism, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident