Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

30 reviews

wardenred's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

It’s your life too; you might like to start giving a fuck what happens in it.

To be honest, I was enjoying this book a lot more before the story actually started. There was that long, slow beginning about the amnesiac protagonist adjusting to a life that didn't feel like his own, and there were so many interesting, sometimes beautifully nebulous things hinted at. The mysterious "epilepsy" epidemics, the weird alternate England occupied by France. Finally, Joe's trip to that weird lighthouse on the frozen edge of the world, the tortoises in the tavern, the coming of winter from the sea. The lighthouse parts were my absolute favorite. I was looking forward to just reading an entire book about lighthouse weirdness.

But then the entire time traveling plot started unfolding, and it was all dimension hopping and murders and naval warfare and convoluted politics. The way it was all laid out, with the random switching of POVs and times, just made my head ache. On top of that, once all that action started, I realized there wasn't a single character I could root for. I simply disliked them all. Even Joe, who'd had my sympathy in the earlier chapters.

I guess The Half-Life of Valery K was a fluke, and Natasha Pulley really isn't an author for me...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, War, and Injury/Injury detail

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Death of parent

cameronreads's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. I think the concept is so interesting and gripping, and I was fully invested the whole time either trying to figure out what on earth was going on or whether my theories were right. I think it was predictable in a way that felt like everything satisfyingly coming into place, with revelations slowly dawning on me allowing for the perfect confirming reveal. I think the characters were compelling and well written, and the book seemed very well research (not that I know anything about history). 

Two half stars were taken off for me - one because the way that time travel was written, although the right way to make the story work, is the one way I hate for time travel to be written. I love it when time travel is more along the lines of what David Lewis theorised as possible, rather than time travellers having the ability to change the future from the past etc. Still, it made for the right kind of story, so only half a star off for that. A second half star off because I wanted just a bit more feeling out of the characters. I think the emotions they were feeling here were so big that they needed a bit more description or emphasis. I wanted to feel the emotions with the characters, and I just didn't really. Mostly I wanted to see more passion out of the main relationship in here, I think just a little more development could have really added to the impact. 

Still, I loved this so much more than I expected to, and I would 100% recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Misogyny, Self harm, Grief, and Colonisation

Minor: Suicide, Torture, Vomit, and Alcohol

kavarnistka's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Moderate: Slavery and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

tamara_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

julesandjude's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

4.0

Mysteriöse und gefühlvolle Geschichte über Zeitreisen und ihre Folgen

"Der Leuchtturm an der Schwelle der Zeit" ist eine teils verwirrende, aber auch originelle, komplexe und spannende Geschichte, die geschickt das Konzept verarbeitet, wie bei einer Zeitreise selbst winzige Veränderungen in einer Zeitebene zu großen Veränderungen in der Vergangenheit, der Gegenwart und der Zukunft führen können.

Im Jahr 1898 kommt Joe Tournier an einem Bahnhof in London an, ohne sich zu erinnern, wer er ist oder wie er dorthin gekommen ist. Er kennt andere Namen und Personen als die, die vor ihm stehen. Noch unheimlicher ist, dass er eine Postkarte von vor 95 Jahren erhält, die ihn auffordert, nach Hause zu gehen. Das ist der einzige Hinweis, den er hat. Die alte Postkarte eines Leuchtturms ist mit M. unterschrieben und Joe ist entschlossen, den Autor zu finden. Die Suche nach M. wird Joe jedoch dazu bringen, die Geschichte und sich selbst neu zu schreiben.

Dank Natasha Pulleys sehr anschaulichen und stimmungsvollen Schreibstil liest sich das Buch leicht und flüssig und ich hatte so keine Probleme, die verschiedenen Zeitebenen auseinanderhalten. Das Element der Zeitreise ist gut durchdacht, auch wenn der Roman sich Zeit lässt an dem Punkt in der Geschichte zu gelangen, an dem alles zusammenfällt und einen Sinn ergibt.
Neben den interessanten und vielschichtigen Charakteren kann die Geschichte auch durch ihre stimmungsvolle Beschreibung der Szenerie überzeugen, so hat man z. B. beim Lesen das Gefühl, man befinde sich an Bord von einen der dunklen, feuchten Marineschiffe.
Durch den Text fließt zudem eine leichte Magie, die geheimnisvoll und unerklärlich ist, die einen aber völlig in die Geschichte hineinzieht. Eine Liebesgeschichte, die durch Raum und Zeit reist und die die Geschichte verändert.
Auch ist das Buch voller Sehnsucht. Joe sehnt sich die ganze Zeit über nach etwas, das er nicht einmal kennt, aber je weiter man in die Geschichte eindringt, versteht man nach und nach, was sich Joe sehnt und was es mit seinem Gedächtnisverlust auf sich hat.

Ein Buch, das seine Zeit braucht um auf einen zu wirken und zu fesseln aber dann wenn man sich darauf einlässt, einen mit einer außergewöhnlichen und gefühlvollen Zeitreisegeschichte und deren Folgen belohnt wird.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Slavery, Violence, Alcohol, and War

kaliko's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Rape and Self harm

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, and Alcohol

imrereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Slavery, and War

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

A brisk, clever time-traveling, alternate-dimension-hopping adventure. The characters are immediately likeable and memorable, although they don't have much interiority;

even after Joe/Jem regains all his memories, it's difficult to place his relationship with Kite in the context of his marriages to Alice / Madeleine, and what Agatha and Jem also felt for each other is a mystery

. Pulley's style is delightful, lyrical and lucid at the same time. It feels strange to be rooting for the British Navy, here buckling under French colonialism; on the one hand, a keen attention to historical detail is counterbalanced by the narrow scope of telling a story of British soldiers fighting French occupation with barely a mention of Britain's own empire. I'm still discontented with the way some threads are tied up:

When does Kite reckon with the consequences of killing a teenage boy? A freak change killing off Toby and Alice and dropping children into Kite and Joe's laps seems like a cop-out way to give them a nuclear family.

But overall, a thrilling tale with immediate, powerful characters that turns on the tropes of amnesia and the horrors of war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Genocide and Alcohol

On rape:

though the narrative seems to acknowledge that the main character is forced into sex by his wife, it stops short of condemning her.

On racism:

The aforementioned wife is one of the only Black characters in the novel, and also killed off in order to give the white and white-passing main couple her children.