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lunaviolet's review against another edition
slow-paced
1.75
This book was so. long. Usually a 200 page book is on the smaller side for me but the pacing of this one made it feel twice as long. This book could have been a quarter of the length and still include all the same information. There were several parts that I felt like I had read already. The author has a tendency to walk in a circle, take a little detour, walk in a circle, talk about himself for two chapters, and return to walking in a circle. Very tedious to read. Also leaves a lot of important information out until the end (despite telling the part of the story the information pertains to at least three times) or leaves it out completely. If this were a fictional novel, I would have no issue with that, but it’s nonfiction and written by a journalist. That means I expect it to be more informative than entertaining, and it definitely tried (and failed) to lean into entertainment. Some things didn’t add up or seemed sketchy and the author was obviously biased, especially near the end. He’s aware that he’s biased, and even tells the reader so in the author’s note, but it made me, as a reader, doubt a lot of the information given and the way it is presented. All in all, if I didn’t have to read this for school, I wouldn’t have picked it up in the first place (I’m most definitely not the target audience (which is important for you to know so that you aren’t deterred by my review if you are the target audience, but, just like the author did with his book, I put vital information in the end of my review when it should have been in the beginning)) nor would I have wanted to read past chapter 3 if I tried to read it out of curiosity.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness and Self harm
Minor: Animal death