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jencolumb0's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
5.0
A multi-layered exploration into life, the universe, and everything, with a lot of wry side-swipes at pop culture as a lot of Big Questions are posed and Core Assumptions challenged. This book manages to be thought-provoking without bogging itself down. It echoed Amores Perros for me, but border, deeper, and . . . French. The cast of characters is almost unwieldy but that observation (or even discomfort), in itself, encourages the reader down a separate rabbit hole of thought and reflection. This is not the book you pick up when you simply want a story to get lost in. It is far better suited to those nights in which you miss your university philosophy course work but don’t want to actually dig out, dust off, or dive into the original texts. For the right moment, an outstanding jumping off-point for some interesting thought experiments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Genocide, Vomit, Antisemitism, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Specific issues to flag generally covered by the content warnings above: graphic description of dismemberment, passing reference to tattoos from German concentration camps during WWII, and discussion of incestuous child sex abuse that provides the general idea of what happened but does not get into too many details and is positively resolved.