Reviews with content warning for Ableism - All the Light We Cannot See

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

35 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

The first part pulled me in, but afterwards it slowed down a bit until finally picking up again around 100 pages in.

The novel is split into parts that span several years with POVs mostly from Marie-Laure and Werner but we get some chapters from other characters occasionally too. I really enjoyed the switching POVs and the sort of timeline split of before/after the siege of Saint-Malo!

Some of Werner’s chapters were a little overly descriptive for my taste. Like I didn’t need a whole paragraph explaining a math equation.

I really liked the short chapters, it helped with reading it in spare moments and being motivated to pick it up more especially considering how long it is. Personally I don’t think it needed to be 500+ pages, any historical fiction over 400 pages is doing too much 😅

The characters were well developed and the writing overall was atmospheric, making me feel like I was there witnessing everything in front of me.

Now aside from the length and dragging pace at times, this was shaping up to be an amazing novel, at least 5 stars, until

the rape scene in the final 40 pages, which was totally was unnecessary (but the author is a man so what do you expect). I know it’s historically accurate and it happened to many women during the war, but there are ways to write it that imply it rather than describe it if the author really wanted to include that detail. Also we barely hear from Jutta or Frau Elena for most of the book BUT NOW we hear from them and this is what we get? Totally unnecessary. It would’ve made more sense if we had been getting Jutta’s perspective the whole time as well, if the authors goal was truly to show all the sufferings of the war, including the Germans themselves.

It felt like a disconnected, out of pocket scene just for the sake of having a rape scene. Just because it’s historically accurate does not mean it’s necessary or should be put into the story, and again, there are better ways to write it if you feel it’s a needed addition 🙃 The story was basically done- it’s serves ZERO purpose to the plot or Jutta’s character- truly pointless and typical “men writing women”

It was a great book otherwise but that scene ruined it and I’m dropping down my rating because of that absolute nonsense. Also as someone who has read a lot of world war 2 historical fiction novels, this one isn’t all that special story-wise. The writing was pretty good but adds nothing to the genre (in my opinion) because it’s really just another “wow what horrible things happening to this young girl but she’s being so brave” and “you know guys, what if not all Nazis were bad, like this young soldier here.”

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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense 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

4.75

‘Does she grieve over his absence? Or has she calcified her feelings, protected herself, as he is learning to do?’

‘Thats how it feels… as though his love for his daughter will outstrip the limits of his body’

‘Silence is the fruit of occupation; it hangs in branches, steps from gutters.’

The fucking ending are you kidding me im gonna scream

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emmagarvey's review against another edition

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medium-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? Yes

2.5

Everything happens in the last 1/4 of the book, and it is so hard to read - the book is comprised of vignettes that frequently shift between perspectives and time periods, I struggled to follow the complex and interesting emotions and experiences of the characters because as soon as something happened it would swap to the other character 10 years in the past!!!!

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esjackson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

The jumping time periods was very confusing at times

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venice_the_vampire's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

such a compelling story, i couldn’t put it down

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belleden's review against another edition

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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

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.

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".

Frederick and his mother

well and truly broke my heart.

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