Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Die Anomalie by Hervé Le Tellier

15 reviews

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

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

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

I thought the concept of this book was really cool - the characters are duplicated with a four month gap and have an opportunity to make different choices - but the execution didn't work for me. The setup is way too long and the book is much more about the simulation theory than any of the characters. I never felt really connected to anyone and nothing interesting happened. Also the book within a book of The Anomaly sounded terrible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Confinement, Terminal illness, and Torture

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

sweeetpeasoup's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This was the best and most interesting book I’ve read in a long while. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I will be thinking about this book for ages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Pedophilia, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

lemonflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy