Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Recursion by Blake Crouch

65 reviews

rnbhargava's review against another edition

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

5.0

This novel is a trip. It puts you through an emotional gamut while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

The world gets destabilized at points in this book. There’s the question of what types of unpleasant events should be intervened on if that’s a possibility. There’s a prominent element to the plot of this book which involves self harm. Personal tragedies are also quite focused on in this plot. The things that happen across life like declining health of yourself and family members is prominent as well. The question of what would you do for your loved ones is intermingled throughout the twisty plot. I loved this book throughout. It’s one of my favorite things read in 2024.

relliepi's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Rape, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Car accident

nicoletiff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

pulp's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

elizafiedler's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I made the mistake of listening to part of this book (the part where Barry loops back and forth with the most frequency, the most futile-feeling part) while stuck waiting and being ignored in the Apple store, surrounded by that sterile, sensory hellscape. Don't make a similar mistake. Listen to it in the open air; it gets existentially claustrophobic in parts. But still, it's an amazing, creative, and ultimately affirming book about human consciousness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Dementia, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Torture, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

liz_not_bennet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

4.5

Who would've thought that Recursion is a beautiful love story set in a horrendous loop of global catastrophy?
I usually shy away from anything to do with physics but Blake Crouch explores the topic of memories mostly in a philosophical way that I didn't mind the physical aspects even though they made my head hurt.
So many people are part of each others lives in a crucial way, them sharing the same memories and therefore being affected when one of those memories is altered. Weird how such a terrible thought experiment makes you feel closer to your fellow human beings.
Whether or not it was intended this book is also the story of a woman who has her intellect, her work, her dream and her freedom stolen again and again by men and is therefore a story of oppression. This was clear to me without it being on-the-nose.
Exceptional was also the weaving of parallels throughout the book, I found many connections between plot lines and characters only reinforcing this theme of togetherness.

SPOILER  SPOILER  SPOILER

My only question is:
Why didn't Slade remember the world ending in previous timelines and needed to be convinced of it??

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Dementia, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

amyg677's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Fire/Fire injury, and War

flolyric's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Car accident

Minor: Suicide and Fire/Fire injury

jazhandz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book has a really interesting premise and sci-fi twist, which it promptly proceeds to squander through lackluster characters and a bloated, complicated plot. Unfortunately it feels like it’ll join the ranks of scifi books that were almost good enough for me to remember, but not quite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Medical content, Dementia, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Cancer, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Most of the self-harm serves an in-story purpose, rather than being the result of mental illness. Additional CWs for extreme depictions of life under nuclear attack and trauma when faced with an apocalyptic scenario.

ms_elchert's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail