Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

31 reviews

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

lorenag5's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

erkhaly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Rape

bookwisp86's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

5.0

 What if a super flu took out 98% of the human population and instead of people becoming lawless rebels or tiny fiefdoms or uptight religious communes (though some do!) a group of people formed a theater troupe called the Traveling Symphony and did a circuit around the Great Lakes performing Shakespere theater and music to the leftover masses? This is the book that answers that question!

 

Skipping back and forth through time from right before the flu and 20 years later this book follows a few different survivors and their interactions both before and after the flu hits. The characters are the focus of the story, not the event itself though the flu does drive everything that is going on. I really enjoyed this book both because the author is very good at writing unique people with their own driving forces and personalities and because not many post apocalyptic books focus on the middle period between “the end” and generations in the future. The only other one I can think of that does so is The Postman by David Brin. I recommend this to people that want a good dystopian novel that focuses more on humanity and characters then the dystopia itself. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual violence

builtonbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

I read this on Easter weekend, a break from my cultural industries masters program, this somehow made more invested in my program. As a museum practitioner the scenes at the Museum of Civilization moved me so much. I binge read it from Good Friday to Black Saturday 2024 and somehow, as a lapsed Catholic, the timing felt right. 

Beautiful uncompromising writing with moments that gave me goosebumps. Reading this in 2024, year 4 post COVID-19 was a wild ride, and I'm glad I waited till now to read it. It also made me miss home, family, and the light and heat of my country.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Animal death

cults

jdhauk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

vivvs's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

liked the premise, wish the main plot had a little more oomph

i found myself wishing for a bigger conclusion about the prophet storyline. i liked the ending and what mandel decided to include in the dialogue and what she left unwritten

but writing was good and interesting format 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

muffmacguff's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this because I LOVED the miniseries. Ultimately, I prefer the miniseries to the book - the ways the stories diverged I almost always preferred the show’s choices to the book’s. Maybe it’s because I saw the show first, who knows? But the book is still terrific. It’s also more melancholy, I think - you get more of a sense of how hard the years between when the story starts (year zero or whatever) and the “present” (year twenty) have been. The book also has more of an interest in recreating society and bringing back what’s been lost, a theme the show diverged from a lot I think. Anyway I look forward eagerly to reading more Emily St. John Mandel in the near future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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