Reviews tagging 'War'

Die Bibliothek am Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

62 reviews

katiekitkatbookfiend's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

It was a real page turner but I did skip a couple of pages here and there as the descriptions were pretty graphic.

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zephyrlestrange's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Coming back to properly review this book because I needed a few days to recover from reading something so incredibly perfect, it’s cemented a spot in my top ten of all time - along with Clive Barker’s Books of The Art series, Hiron Enne’s Leech and Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore if that gives you an idea of my tastes. 

Sprawling doesn’t do it justice - the sheer size and scope of the story is so incredibly impressive for an author’s first book. Every character has an opportunity to evolve and grow and in such a way I feel like this should be mandatory reading for those wanting to write. 

It was in all ways the perfect balance of awe inspiring beauty, nail biting dread and bald faced horrific violence - nothing was gratuitous and it all added to the tension of the story. I will say the end of the book feels a little rushed but I could not imagine trying to pull all the threads of this tapestry together with such grace. 

If you like strong female leads, sci-fi, mythology, language, absurdism, terror, violence, revenge, you will love this book. 1000000/10

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teaganme's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

Stunning book, beautiful prose, and interesting world building. Someone asked me what this book was about, but I couldn't answer, which adds to the fun and mystery. 

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lollisch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

Så så mörk men jäklar vad bra den var!

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grunbean's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

A debut that’s dark, and darkly amusing. If you like ‘weird’ books, this is a must read.

I needed to pick this up at every chance to see where it was going next. The thread isn’t the easiest to follow in all places, which is natural for a debut, but everything that is happening kept me going.

This is heavy in its content. If you don’t have the stomach for harm to every kind of creature, human or animal or deity, I would turn back now.


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andrew_matteson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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


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chrispy_mac's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I saw/heard only positive reviews on this book and I don't really get it. The real life mentions of actual famous people really took me out, and found the characterization of most characters quite shallow, and there was way too much exposition in the dialogue. I understand what's happening, you don't need to explain it again by the characters talking about it. There were some really dumb parts involving the unnamed
president of the united states
in an urban fantasy.. and the fantasy elements were interesting but never explained at all. Basically just don't worry about it.

There were also just some weird, gross moments in this book that felt really unnecessary.

I'll give it this, it was entertaining and was a fairly quick read, so if you just want to not think about the fantasy elements or characters too deeply, and want an entertaining time, you might like this book. I think it's competently written for the most part, for my personal taste I just wish I'd have skipped it.

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ana_vargas's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.25


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helenleone's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious 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


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ahoyitsjoy's review against another edition

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

4.0

Such a good book. Very confusing, but everything comes together well in the end. I found the librarians, and especially Carolyn, so fascinating. The book almost never explicitly tells you what's going on with her, but there's so much between what's said and unsaid that makes her one of the most interesting characters I've ever read about. The writing is so good at effortlessly moving between brutal violence and horror, absurd humor, and brief moments of quiet contemplation of what it means to be human. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

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