Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Tutti gli uccelli nel cielo by Charlie Jane Anders

10 reviews

clairebau's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I expected to think this book was just okay, and then I went and loved it. I love a coming-of-age story. I love light science fiction. I love stuck-up, idiot-smart male characters and genuinely interesting & feminine female ones. Magical realism is always a bit of a hit or miss for me, but in this case, it was a huge hit. I love a weird ass book. God, this book was weird, but in an off-beat, well developed way. The strength of this book was in its characters and writing style. The plot was just-fine, I guess, but I liked the other aspects too much to care.

My critiques are few. There were too many minor characters with too-few contributions to the story at large. Like with most books, I felt the ending was a bit rushed and not as fleshed out as the beginning (which, in the case of this book, was especially carefully done). Slight deus ex machina at the end, but there was enough leading up to it that I'm not mad about it.

I'd love if this author focused less on plot-ambitious stuff and kept at the coming of age, realistic romance sort of thing, as that's what I thought she excelled at. I'll likely be rereading this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and War

walkie_check's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

maddibw's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

It was a fun and interesting read. And it certainly felt like a take on Sci-fi and fantasy that I haven’t read before which was cool. I will say that the summary in the flap of the book feels like it describes plot points that aren’t as significant to the book or don’t adequately summarize or encapsulate the book in the way I would have liked it to. Then again, I may not have read it and I enjoy it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Minor: Chronic illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Self harm, and Vomit

beccaand's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

disniq's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.0

Some interesting concepts but execution unfortunately bogged down with an overly quirky writing style and too many casual, gross stereotypes. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm and Suicidal thoughts

deedireads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

All the Birds in the Sky is a whimsical, super creative novel with some really lovable characters. I loved how it blended fantasy and sci-fi. A new favorite!

For you if: You love a great storyteller voice.

FULL REVIEW:

“A society that has to burn witches to hold itself together is a society that has already failed, and just doesn't know it yet.”

I read All the Birds in the Sky because I got it in my Page 1 Books subscription — their booksellers chose it just for me, based on my reading history. I’d also previously read The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders and wanted to read more of her novels. So voila, here was the answer. And y’all — it was literally so good.

I love a whimsical, creative book, and this had just the right touch of both. It combines low fantasy and soft sci-fi in a recognizable world, coming together as a funny, moving, engaging, and just plain fun book to read. It’s about two main characters: Patricia, who is apparently a witch (or so a giant tree told her one time), and Laurence (never Larry), who is a boy computer genius. They’re bullied throughout middle school, but have each other — until they don’t. Then they reconnect later, as adults, when the world seems to be ending. But their respective groups of people have competing ideas about what to do in response.

The pacing was a little slow in the middle (honestly, that’s true for most books), but I loved Patricia and Laurence so much that I was more than willing to spend the time with them. Neither of them is perfect, but I loved them together and their beautiful, tested, gritty friendship. Can we please have more magic + science books??

All in all, I really just loved it. I definitely want to read it again someday. And Charlie Jane Anders has become an auto-read author for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Child abuse and Confinement

dokushoka's review against another edition

challenging dark funny 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Cursing

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Drug use, and Violence

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Grief, Stalking, and Death of parent

aasplund's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Sexual content

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

vel16's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

So. This book is very interesting for a few different reasons.

1. Its so interesting to read a book about the protagonists failing. Both Patricia and Laurence fail a lot, from the very first chapter - I like this. They are both flawed, very flawed, and whilst I usually don't get on with books with unlikeable protagonists, they're interesting enough for me to want to keep reading about them.

2. Switching perspectives is another thing I don't usually like in books, however it Works here - mainly because whichever perspective we see it from, its still mostly about both characters.

3. It is set in 3 different times - the protagonists as children, teenagers, and adults. This can be done in ways I dont like (such as Song of Achilles) however here I really liked it - the pacing was good, it didnt drag, what was needed to be told was and then the story moved on.

The reason this is 3 stars is mainly because of some weird bits towards the end. I loved loved loved the parts of the book with them as children/teens, but the adult lart of the story just didn'  do much for me. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what the problem was, but it seemed like the story jumped forwards with no context or explanation. I may well have missed something, and I am looking forward to rereading the book in a few years.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts