Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

16 reviews

oriana095's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity and Death

Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Child death, Rape, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

tremayna's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Infidelity

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, Classism, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Religious bigotry, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Child death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Suicide, Confinement, Rape, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Medical content, and Pedophilia

Written before the 2020 pandemic, this book about a fictional global viral event was disorienting to read in the year 2023, so closely following the eerily parallel events that came to pass in real life. Much of the real life pandemic is still in progress; its effects continue to leave their mark; the process of compartmentalizing memories of things surreal and too big to process without a biweekly therapy plan is still happening. Picking up this book jolted me back into the thick of pandemic thinking, creating a literal sense of disorientation where I was looking around me wondering how people could be sitting so close, maskless, touching everything without thought, when I hadn't seen the world that way in at least a year and a half. For that reason alone, I have to commend the writing. And at the same time, the author's delicate touch and the many moments of human normalcy, in both pre-event and post-event scenes, prevented the complete despair that could have pervaded this story. I felt St John Mandel balanced total devastation with enough possibility to keep the reader believing in the likelihood of meaningful survival without overdoing it and allowing the story to devolve into purely a feel good fantasy.

Spoiler

My one remaining frustration by the end was how little of Jeevan's growth we got to see. It was thankfully alluded to in enough detail to let the reader form a picture. But as the first point of view character, he was the one that had my investment from the start, and I slightly resented Arthur's story for edging it out, especially since Jeevan's story could also have neatly covered Tyler and Elizabeth's character development.

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Medical content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Car accident, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence

jg34's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I’ll start by saying that science fiction/dystopian is not really my usual genre so I think the areas that fell flat for me is due to that. There are a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of all their storylines. I think I may have enjoyed it more if it focused in depth on one or two characters instead of these snippets from multiple people. I wanted to know more about Jeevan, maybe learn more about the people in the troupe or how Kirsten came to join them. Maybe could have snuck in a bit of a love story?? At first I also felt a bit unsatisfied with the ending but I think I’m coming around to it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Pedophilia, and Animal death

This story is about a post epidemic world and all the survivalism stuff that comes with living in a collapsed society

bdingz's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

From what I’d previously heard about this book, I was expecting more horror or thriller elements. Once I realized that wasn’t accurate, I had to set those expectations aside and enjoy the story for what it was. I liked how the stories all intertwined, although I liked reading about some characters more than others. I would’ve liked a bit more focus on Kristen and the Symphony. 

Annoying trope of

Spoiler

disabled people killing themselves because they’re a burden—not once, but twice.

Still, I loved the writing style. I hope to read more from Emily St. John Mandel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Grief, Gun violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Pedophilia, and Body horror

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Alcohol, Drug use, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

irisestacansado's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Sexual violence and Domestic abuse

kelseak96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Amazing. Spectacular. Phenomenal. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Medical trauma, Murder, and Physical abuse

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

liliaweber's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.0

The threads of different lives are woven together across different eras - in a non-chronological arrangement of chapters that somehow flows beautifully, rhythmically, like a song.

This book is basically a meditation on a quote from Star Trek, which is a mantra often repeated by the characters themselves: "survival is insufficient." It's about why the human need to create art and tell stories is worth braving the danger of an unpredictable post-apocalyptic world. It's also about the choice to let go of what we've lost vs the drive to rebuild it, or how to balance both. I ugly cried more than once.

Three of the main characters are sympathetic, compelling, interesting. If there's any flaw in this book it's that the one character that glues the others together - the first character mentioned in the opening line - is self-centered, boring to read about, and doesn't grow. Defeating the villain is only a small sliver of the story; the main goals of the main characters are to survive a post-apocalyptic world, to uncover missing truth, and to create something worth surviving for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Violence

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Trafficking

Murder, killing out of self-defense, and death from natural causes are depicted with some detail and are central to the story. The main villain of the story intends to traffick ("marry") a child but she escapes before he can. Suicide, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence are mentioned, but with very few details.