Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Cantique pour les étoiles by Simon Jimenez

22 reviews

teaxmillions's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

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library_of_wonder's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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planetesastraea's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

It has taken me a little while to wrap my head around this book and write a proper review of it.

From the very first pages, The Vanished Birds has been haunting. 
The book kicks off painting a world in which time goes more slowly for a group of mysterious technologically-advanced off-worlders. This perspective gives the tone for the whole novel: how small human lives can be, how fragile and fickle, a blink in the span of human history, and a speck of dust in the universe. 

As I read this book, anxiety followed me with each chapter.
Even during the most light-hearted parts of the crew's every day life, the weight of the deranging unknown that has carved its shape into their lives can't be shaken off. Something inescapable looms in the dark- something that they know to be wonderful but bound to be the key to their demise.
And this incredible build-up only works because of its even somber unfolding.

Jimenez's writing speaks to his knowledge of what it is to be human, for better and for worst.  
The length of humanity's cruelty only finds an equal in the endless hope and love that comes with finding a family, and fighting to keep it.

If I usually turn to more light-hearted reading I can't say I regret having read The Vanished Birds. It's a powerful read that has stayed with me ever since. 

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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It starts with a character whose limb difference is medically corrected in the first paragraph, this made me uneasy, because it allows for a bunch of ableist situations without actually having the character be physically different. I gave it a bit longer but never recovered my good will, I don't like this.
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kp_writ's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The kind of book that makes you feel like you accomplished something by finishing. And by that I mean it was dreadfully slow, and I had to work hard to keep my interest and understand the perspective shifts (that were confusing whether they happened chapter by chapter or paragraph by paragraph or towards the end even sentence by sentence). I'm very glad to have read it, and I think it's a book I may return to eventually for a reread, but it is not an easy read.
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malhale's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.25

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astroprojection's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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bookishplantmom's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

3.5

I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. The story itself is really great and the writing is absolutely beautiful  but they somehow don't go together...? Not to say that SF books can't have lyrical, poetic or literary value, obviously, but somehow here the stylistic choices the author made got in the way of the plot and of getting the know and love the characters. The choice to tell this tale from a 3rd person omnipresent narrator's perspective, which sometimes slipped into the characters perspectives, gave the story a fairytale/folklore tone but also muddied parts of the story. The plot here is rather complex, there is a lot going on with a lot of different characters across time and space. That alone is a great deal to keep tabs on with simpler writing styles. Add to it the 3rd person omnipresent narration as well as overlapping perspectives and goodness me it takes a lot of focus to stay with it. It was not *difficult* to read, but it commanded attention let's say. Since the writing style made it hard for me to connect with the characters I was more invested in the overarching plot than in their individual stories (except for Fumiko, she was fascinating). Unfortunately, the narration made the plot almost secondary to the writing so I was left feeling overall kind of meh about my reading experience. This is an amazing debut but some things just didn't land all the way for me in terms of the writing but the story itself was really very good! 
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caseythereader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? No

5.0

 - I do not know how to properly review THE VANISHED BIRDS, a book that burrowed deep into my heart right from the opening pages.
- Yes, it is an inventive adventure across time and space, but it's also a tender exploration of trauma and of found family.
- Also, it doesn't say it in the synopsis, but queerness is quite embedded in this story, and in such a loving way. 
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amandaquotidianbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-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

Large pacing and tone shifts, which made it difficult to connect with the characters. The story starts out fairly hopeful, but gets really dark. I enjoyed the subtle world building and that the homosexual and asexual representations was seamlessly integrated into the story.
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