Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

60 reviews

ktbeth143's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I felt physically I’ll after finishing it. I’m amazed at how an author can tie up all the loose ends of a complex story and yet no one gets a happy ending…and how it’s understandable and necessary.

Have you ever read a book that makes you consider changing the entire way you rate books?

Spoiler

5 star reads for me are books where I wouldn’t change a thing, and normally that means if a character I like dies I give it a 4.75, but after really processing this story, I hate to say it, but Werner’s death was necessary. So I wouldn’t change it as much as I wanted every one to have a happy ending.

This story is emotionally gripping. And it shows the complexity of people dragged into war. Ultimately it left me feeling like anyone who grew up in Europe in the 1940s was gyped of a decent life. This book details how WW2 affected the youth who lived through it. 

I would recommend this to anyone who loves historical fiction, but also to anyone who likes good stories. Be warned though, you will not feel okay while reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Murder, Racism, and Death

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

eed8's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Death of parent, and Antisemitism

megb64's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Rape, Gun violence, Death, Sexual assault, War, and Murder

smkelly1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Overall, I felt this book was written beautifully. The prose, word choice, flow, and quick chapters left me throughly engaged. Regarding the actual story I felt as if I needed more. I just felt like something was missing to the the whole book together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, War, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, and Genocide

em_gauts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Gore, War, Death, Child death, Gun violence, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

belleden's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The

Spoiler

pointless rape chapter

is why I don’t read books written by men. 🙄 If you want to win a Pulitzer Prize, all you have to do is be a man and write a book about WWII, apparently.

I strongly disliked the way the framing device of a shifting timeline was used. The dates were sometimes clearly labeled, but often not, and I had to go back and reread several times to understand where we were in the story. I even felt that the opening chapters of the book were a spoiler and I think it would have worked much better chronologically.
Marie-Laure and her family were extremely lovable and the main reason why I kept reading.  Marie-Laure felt so real and I had a deep desire to protect her the entire time I was reading. The Sea of Flames storyline was fascinating and kept me wondering until the end.
I appreciate how this book handles trauma and the realities of war.

Spoiler

Not everyone gets a happy ending. Sometimes bad things happen to good people

  and I think historical fiction that ignores that fact is completely unrealistic.
This book was recommended for me for the Red TV prompt of the Taylor Swift reading challenge - "a book over 450 pages that will break your heart".

Spoiler

Frederick and his mother

well and truly broke my heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Child death, Antisemitism, Bullying, and War

Moderate: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, and Cancer

Minor: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Rape

grommit's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

Emotional and brilliant

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Violence, War, and Rape

Minor: Racism, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Xenophobia

mdwsn27's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Genocide, Antisemitism, and Grief

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racial slurs, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Bullying, and Ableism

Minor: Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Another book club read, and I'm glad I was put onto this one, as I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with it. This is a beautifully woven tale of .. uhm, nerds in World War II.

Werner is a snow-haired German lad who was orphanned by the mines of the Reich. As a curious child he develops himself into an electrical engineer who specializes in fixing radios, and is noticed by a German general who forwards him for advancement in an elite military school.
Marie-Laure is the daughter of keymaster of the French museum. She develops cataracts and goes blind as a child, and her father crates a scale model of her neighbourhood as a tactile map for her to learn her way around.
When the war starts, Marie-Laure and her father flee to her uncle's house, and Werner is a radio engineer for Hitler's army.

This story is told with deep emotional resonance, and using all sorts of literary quirks that focus on themes of light and darkness, sounds, sensation, fear and bravery, morality, logic and puzzles, knowing and learning, art and music, the love of nature, and of people. I love the descriptions of things like disappearing in fog– that it's about vanishing into whiteness rather than shadows.  The descriptions are visceral and evocative as well as clever.

This is a story of survival, of war, of fear and bloodshed, and it doesn't pull its punches. It certainly answers, in a humane way, questions about how people can do inhuman things in war, and the toll it can take on families.

I found the going slow, and occasionally tense, but also full of whimsy and beauty in contrast.
Well worth the read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Xenophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Grief, War, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Excrement, Death, Child death, Blood, Antisemitism, Vomit, Torture, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Cancer, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Rape, Racism, Confinement, Chronic illness, Animal death, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Classism, and Bullying

zosiablue's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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

GodDAMN 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Confinement, War, and Dementia

Moderate: Genocide, Grief, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Racism