Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

168 reviews

bookhead420's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Really captured my attention. Writing is beautiful. The narratives weave together in a super compelling way and I enjoyed the mix of plot / more existential and poetic details

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Domestic abuse

sar_willow's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

sarasreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

So a few years ago I read Sea of Tranquility, not knowing three of her novels were connected. So I've now gone back to read Station Eleven, and I'll continue on and reread the last one. I took this one camping, and it was a great atmosphere for this book. The writing is beautiful and thought provoking, and I loved how the jumping time periods and perspectives kept you guessing for how everything was going to converge. 

And it was a really satisfying ending too! I think this one is going to stay with me, and I'll be ruminating on it for a long time. I may even bump it up from 4.5 to 5 stars if it really sticks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Kidnapping

sertzo19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

What a beautiful fucking novel. Station Eleven is a masterpiece of storytelling. I had seen the HBO series back when it came out and loved it so much that I stupidly avoided this book expecting to be disappointed but it’s actually 1000x better than the immaculate series. The world-building, the characters, the inner dialogue… beautiful written! It really is crazy though how well Emily St. John Mandel was able to capture the psychology of a pandemic that happened 6 years after she wrote this book… felt myself chilled to the bone a few times just reminiscing on those early months of 2020.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Gun violence

razkat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ottercorg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I had heard nothing but amazing things about this book...so unfortunately I had very high expectations and ended up feeling a bit let down. I think if I wasn't spending the whole time wondering, "When does it get as good as everyone said it is?" I would've enjoyed it a lot more.

However! About halfway through I did start to really dig my teeth into it. As with a lot of the books I've read recently, once things started to fall into place and I started to see the connections, I got a lot more interested.

The concept is certainly interesting, the characters were fine, I just wanted...more.

I wish it had been two books. One about "the before" and one about "the after," but I understand that you can't predict success and if you aren't sure you'll get a second book deal, you might as well put both stories in one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rowan27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Gun violence

Minor: Rape

juliusclearance's review

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

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

4.75

This was an excellent read. I had to pace myself but it was worth it.
I considered giving this book a five star as I didn’t want to undersell the book and my experience with it. The story was at times uncomfortable, and although I would have preferred a different ending, but this is a book I will recommend and likely reread.
I do think the moral of the story is a little heavy handed at the end, and I would

rather have not had the flashback at the end, but then I’ve always preferred a more open ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Suicide, and Violence

parissummerreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, and Abandonment

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel is a sad and terrifying book about the collapse of society from a fast-spreading pandemic - and what remains twenty years later. But it's also a stpry about interconnected lives, the small moments that do and don't define us, and the unknowable.

I've owned this book since December 2018, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it before March 2020. And then I couldn't bring myself to. I wonder, having read it now, what my experience of the pandemic would have been if I had. On one hand, this story explores a total society collapse due to a swift and extremely deadly virus, so much worse than we experienced. So maybe that would have been comforting. But I don't think so. I found the chapters of the collapse extremely stressful, and actually had a pandemic nightmare. Mandel does an amazingly vivid job of depicting the range of human reactions to such a virulent outbreak.

Moving away from that, I found this book's exploration of public perception, legacy, physical media, and community fascinating. The Travelling Symphony continues to perform Shakespeare, while Kirsten finds comfort in sci-fi through memories of Star Trek and the comic Station Eleven. There's celebrity magazines, newspapers, and other physical items and media that speak to the world we have. 

I enjoyed how the point-of-view narrators lives circled around each other, although I do wish some connections were made on-page in the "present day". I had particular hopes for two of the characters. 

Too much of this book felt heartbreakingly real in a way I have to give Mandel props for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual violence