Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

17 reviews

jjreads331's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Of all the places I thought this series would go, this was not it, if I'm being honest. And I am so happy to have been surprised. I'm excited to see what comes next, even if I'm still reeling a bit from this entry into the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Colonisation

pineapplesurvivor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Classism

banrions's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

I wavered back and forth for like the last three min if I was gonna put this as a 4 star book or a 3 star one. Honestly, it’s a 3.5 for me either way, but ultimately, I think I rounded down because, though once I sat through and read it, I absolutely was powering through and not wanting to stop for long periods of time, I was also often frustrated with what I was reading.

This book took a slightly different turn partway through and added a secondary POV that at first, I was annoyed by, and then INFURIATED BY because I just wanted to get into cora’s head again, and then, I ended up really thinking it was a smart narrative decision, and THEN the final passage of the book nailed me flat and I think that I will be thinking about it for a while.

(This is not going to be a very coherent review, as if mine ever really are lol. That’s not what I do here, I just vent some emotions about the book into a void).

I think I’ll be thinking about a LOT of this book for a while.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

erynlasbelin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

paperpaladin's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-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

3.75

Truth of the Divine is a good book but deals with heavy things that I was not prepared for. Truth of the Divine picks up about 3 months after the end of Axiom's End. Cora is not doing well after the climax of the last book. She has PTSD and panic attacks. But she does have a job as interpreter for Ampersan during the 2008 recession, so that counts for something right?

This book is different in tone than the first focusing much more heavily on politics and mental health and less on discovery and suspense. This book shows the hard side of mental illness where things are bad and only getting worse. It is a hard read, especially if you have similar struggles to Cora. The new POV character is interesting though his introduction to the story was weird. Also the book ended in a very different way that I thought it would so it was nice to be surprised.

Though I personally was not in the head space for this book at the time I read it, it was well written and dealt with the messy side of mental health without glorifying or demonizing it. Lindsay Ellis walks this line well and I am interested to see where the series goes from here.
 
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism

stormywolf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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

 Audiobook Read by Abigail Thorn, Kaveh Taherian, and Stephanie Willis
Unabridged Length: 17.3 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed

Read my full review at The Wolf's Den

Overall, this was a great improvement and continuation of what came before. The new cast member added even more authenticity to the production (which was only fair considering his "consultant" status) and expertly ushered me through the bits of Farsi/Farglish that Kaveh and his family used throughout. I am both scared—considering how devastated this book left me at times—and excited for what comes next, and am eagerly awaiting the next update. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Infertility, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Dementia

Author's Note includes content warnings for trauma, post-traumatic stress, depression, addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, mental illness, panic attacks, suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, attempted suicide, completed suicide, violent self-harm, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, racially motivated violence, anti-Semitism, racial slurs, and (while she wouldn't consider it sexual violence) some uncomfortable sexual situations.

sugarpal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

• 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

4.5

Very happy to have won a giveaway for an ARC of this book! I hoped the sequel would be better, and I’m glad to say that it was. (Also, I freaking adore the cover.) 

 

Though it certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, I found Truth of the Divine to be very well executed, and extremely thought-provoking. (Think: Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card, but with a non-homophobic author.) This book is much better than its predecessor Axiom’s End, but it’s very different too: much denser; more political, philosophical, and personal; far less focused on action, although there is still some in there. There are new aliens, new humans, new conflicts. One thing’s for sure: though there’s some humor in here, this is not a fun book. These characters go through some shit (CW: trauma, PTSD, suicide, self-harm). Ellis is far more concerned with the philosophical and political implications of aliens coming to call than she is with happy endings. 

 

Much of the improvement from Axiom’s End, though, is because to me the characters were much more interesting. In Axiom’s End, Cora didn’t seem to have much of an arc; the focus was on the development of her relationship with Ampersand. In this book, however, she has more of an emotional journey, and her complicated relationships, especially with the new character Kaveh, are well depicted –– in that they left me feeling very conflicted, as I’m sure Ellis intended. (She does not sugarcoat things.) Speaking of, I really enjoyed reading Kaveh’s perspective alongside Cora’s. Not only does he have a refreshing and entertaining voice, he also has a unique viewpoint on both Cora and the aliens. I always enjoy seeing contrasting perspectives on the same characters. But be warned: I wouldn’t call them likable. Ellis’s characters are all deeply flawed, which in my book is one mark of a skilled writer. 

 

These books are fundamentally about people’s relationship to the alien, whether that’s between groups of humans or between interplanetary peoples. These relationships are defined by conflicts of values, of beliefs, of power. Yet Ellis still treats her alien characters with as much empathy as she does her human ones, giving them individuality and depth. Her discussion of how to apply ‘human rights’ to non-human persons, who happen to have an enormous technological advantage, was fascinating. And I found her exploration of how America would react to the arrival of extraterrestrial refugees to be depressingly realistic. 

 

I think the ending fit, and it left me sure the next book will be even bigger and better than the last. It’s been a few days, and as with Axiom’s End, Truth of the Divine is sticking with me. I’m definitely going to be picking up the third book when it comes out! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail