Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

13 reviews

skylarkelly242's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

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

2.75

This book is about a flu epidemic that causes most of civilisation to collapse and become corrupt. The book starts with a tragic situation concerning the protagonist, and then jumps the timeline to the period before the tragedy happened, and then at the end of the book it circles back to the death. This novel is a full circle story, it isn't left on a cliffhanger. The main themes were tragedy, civilisation, survival, and death. Death and survival were very common themes throughout the novel.This is because of the epidemic causing citizens to die hastily, also causing a lot of society survival instincts to kick in. Society had to make a lot of important decisions concerning their life and well being. The beginning was the most interesting when the epidemic and flu were being talked about, but shortly after that the novel became a little too slow paced for me. I enjoyed reading about Jeevans preparations for the epidemic, liked how many trips he had to make to the food store while snow was falling and the store was about to close. 

I like this book because it goes into depth about the characters relationships with one another. The characters change throughout the book because a lot of friendships and relationships often do not last, for many reasons. For me 1984 is similar to this because of the dystopian fiction, but it differs because Station Eleven jumps back and fourth, and it has different timelines. The one piece of symbolism that stuck through the whole book with me was the cloudy paperweight, I always thought it resembled the setting of the book because of the flu that spread. The point of this book shows survival between life and death. The take away message is that there is a chance of survival. A trigger warning may be useful before the protagonists death, because they died from a heart attack. I recommend this book if you like a novel that jumps around a lot, because there are quite a lot of storylines. My favourite part of this book was the dinner party. " There are ten guests here tonight, an intimate evening to celebrate both the anniversary and the opening weekend figures." The dinner party was full of drama thats why I liked it. A part of the book I didn't enjoy was the story of the Traveling Symphony I felt that it was very slow paced and kind of unnecessary. "There were moments around campfires when someone would say something invigorating about the importance of art, and everyone would find it easier to sleep that night." This shows basically what the Traveling Symphony would be doing and I just think that this storyline is unimportant to the book, we don't need to know about their campfire stories.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Death

orchidlilly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

It's interesting to read a post pandemic apocalypse after the whole actual pandemic. It's well written, and I always like split perspective and split timelines. I feel like some of the plot points could have been tied up clearer, for a book that so deliberately makes sure all the characters have oelverlapping lives, we sort of miss out on what happens with Elizabeth. It just feels like that plot line was left unconcerned, while everyone else had their loose ends tied up.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Rape, and Excrement

adammuly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Infidelity, Suicide, and Violence

parfait52's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

It took me several months to get through this book, which is saying something because it's fairly short. Every time I picked it up, I was interested enough. Once I put it down, though, I didn't feel the need to pick it back up. This book doesn't really have a plot so much as it has a story. And once you figure out how the story is forming and the author is doing, it's very easy to know where it's going to go. At times, I found the writing to be beautiful and profound. I found the concept fascinating, but the execution was stifling at points. There were several parts of the book that I personally found very boring and wanted to get past immediately. Overall, not a bad read. There are just books I've enjoyed more.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy

annaofjesup's review against another edition

adventurous reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Rape, Sexual assault, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

kananineko's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Alcohol, and War

naomi_k's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual content and Suicide

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Drug use, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Pregnancy

owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

"He woke to quiet voices. This had been happening more and more lately, this nodding off unexpectedly, and it left him with an unsettled intimation of rehearsal. You fall asleep for short periods and then for longer periods and then forever."

Compellingly written prose with a well-developed cast of characters. Whilst I wish Kristen's storyline had more events within it, I really liked the book and I think it is both hopeful and unsentimental about humanity, in a way that I suspect might be altered in the TV adaptation. 

This book has a lot to say about art and community-building and the role these will play in coming crises. It felt resonant with ecological anxieties about climate change and social anxieties in the age of COVID-19. Some of the passages about process and industrialisation felt a tad oversimplified and neoliberal - surely an Amazon delivery driver or a factory worker making snowglobes has complex, nuanced feelings about their labour and their lives that goes beyond gratitude for a job - but everything else was thoughtful, interesting, well-paced and moving. I loved Kirsten and Miranda. What wonderful characters.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

readerette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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? No

5.0

I could not put this down. I was immersed. I've never experienced an apocalyptic story that came so close to feeling real--how things seem like they would really go if something world-ending came to pass. Aside from Part 7 being too long and unfocused for my taste, I loved it all: the writing, the characters, the relationships, the new world that came to be, the little things people remembered or cherished... Just beautiful. She's captured the little world within a world that each of us builds by way of the people we are connected to; the ones we know our whole lives and the ones we meet indirectly through their art or work or or mutual friends; the ones we meet early and the ones we meet later; the ones we lose for a while and the ones we lose forever; the ones who were part of some milestone and the ones who were a constant.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Infidelity, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail