Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

Die Anomalie by Hervé Le Tellier

31 reviews

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

crizzle's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Pedophilia, Suicide, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Incest, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

pershie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Oh boy, how to describe the book that I just read… The Anomaly is a genre-bending, multi-perspective, multi-timeline book that will leave you with more questions than answers. It all takes place over the course of a few months, and the satire, science fiction, and dystopia all wrapped up in one brings you to the end of the book in a hurry. It’s a book about empathy, yet also a book about some of the biggest horrors of life. There’s not much more I can write about The Anomaly without spoiling it, so I’d simply suggest reading it and interpreting it as you wish. You may need to search the internet for answers once you’re done, but this book will leave you thinking about life for a long time. Oh, and that last page is a journey, to say the least!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

eliel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

The book has fascinating story concept, beautiful characters and great writing.

For me this was the perfect book to read right now. It tied together so many things I have heard and read lately. Definitely a book I can get back to eventually.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Torture

bookdelope1's review

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

There are a lot of different characters. I found it hard to remember all the details, so I had to go back to earlier chapters every now and then.
Other than that it is a great book. It is interesting how different people handle the situation. It could have gone more into depth here and there. The ending left me speechless.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, and Death

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Minor: Incest, Racism, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

bre88's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious reflective 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

Incredible. A truly unique and multi layered story with diverse perspectives from a large group of characters. Somehow the writer successfully builds worlds around  characters who span the globe and brings authenticity to all of them. I can’t wait to read this one again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Suicide, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit

znvisser's review against another edition

mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

I picked up this book because I was intrigued by its premise, and ended up bonding with some interesting characters too. However, none of it was really explored in-depth, because the author tried to cram EVERYTHING into a limited number of pages: there are storylines before, during and after discovering the divergence, and wayyyy too many characters along the way. The author uses all their storylines to explore as many relational, philosophical and political themes and ideas as possible and as a result of all this, nothing really exceeds superficiality.

Furthermore, I ran into quite a few of my pet peeves, which didn’t contribute to my reading experience. The author, through his instrument of the storyteller, exudes an air of arrogance: women are described through a male gaze (even when Lucie meets herself), Nigeria and the US through a European gaze, and religion through an atheist gaze. There was no reason to not explore this more humbly. And on a less serious note: I just don’t enjoy writers writing about writing. It only works for me in very few instances, and this was definitely not one of those. It was made worse by the writer in this book having written a book called ‘the anomaly’ too, which kept popping up so often it became quite central to the story, even quoting from its imaginary pages as if it were the most brilliant thing ever written. Was this supposed to be clever, or funny? Similarly, was it supposed to be clever or funny to make a caricature out of a president that has hurt so many lives? 

For me this story would have improved immensely by just sticking to the relational aspect through a limited number of characters. Now it was just an ok read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Racism, Suicide, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Pregnancy

lesenilpferd's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Terminal illness

ritavidi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Suicide, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury