Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed

5 reviews

holyteeth's review

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.25

I have very mixed feelings on this book.

I devoured it. Finished the whole thing in less than a day. The writing style was engaging, and I was really, really curious to see where the plot was going. The answer is... nowhere much.

THE PROS:
I enjoyed the world building. I was immersed in it quite easily, without too much exposition, but by being gently enveloped in it through the context itself. Very well done. To me most of it was solid and made sense. The way people behaved was very neatly tied in to the society they lived in and I could tell exactly the ways it had influenced them and why they did most things they did.
The characters were enjoyable and easy to love, and I found myself deeply invested in their stories. It was a difficult read, absolutely, considering the subject matter, but I found it handled mostly with thoughtfulness and an approach to children characters I don' t often see from books of this nature.
The handling of a child's POV in general was well done. I often found myself sharing in their joy and enjoying the way they viewed the world, which made it all the more effective when I was ripped out of it by adult understanding of what was unfolding. I especially enjoyed the approach to how the teens and tweens viewed puberty- almost like a horror novel in the physicality of it.

THE CONS(?):
Starting from the simplest things: This book is difficult to read if you're a disabled person, which I am. This is not a judgement of the book as much as it is a warning to other disabled people. In the context of the society portrayed, the way disabled children and the concept of disability is approached makes a lot of sense, and ties in with the rest of the themes. It's still difficult to read about as a disabled person, so I want to have it out there.
Most of the characters had the same voices regardless of whose POV it was, which made it difficult to keep track of who was who, especially early in the book with so many names being thrown around and so many characters having the same last names. It could have definitely benefited from some more differation between voices.
There was virtually, in my opinion, no character development. All characters, by the end of the book or of themselves, were pretty much psychologically/mentally at almost the exact place they started, just more dead or traumatized. 
And the biggest one... what was the point? Don't get me wrong, like I said, I enjoyed the story. But it seemed to rapidly jump back and forth between hopeful and pessimistic, and by the end I was left feeling... almost a little robbed. Maybe that was the point, now that I think about it.

But after reading a whole book, watching those girls fighting tooth and nail to make their lives better and help each other and develop community and love and live, it felt much like having the door shut in my face, to end the book with most of them dead, and the community worse off than before. It was such a harrowing story to read, and there was no reprieve from it. I suppose there's no reprieve from trauma and indoctrination for many. I'll be thinking about what this book was trying to say for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Abortion

chuckyinspace's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

potsnpots's review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

morganperks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Murder, and Gaslighting

stormwise's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

This novel is not for the faint of heart, addressing themes of rape culture, child abuse and trauma in a dystopian setting. 

The story is told from the perspectives of the daughters, girls living in a world where the boundary between childhood and womanhood is sharply delineated by the onset of puberty.

As the plot unfolds, glimpses of the true nature of their community are revealed and it becomes evident to the reader that rather than a refuge from the supposed wastelands, the island is instead home to a cult that indoctrinates its members from childhood, using tradition as an excuse for abuse.

A deeply unsettling novel that warns against blindly following rules and customs without examining the harm they cause. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Rape, Grief, and Death of parent