Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Pod by Laline Paull

18 reviews

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

I don't know how to rate this book. It was vicious, and beautiful, and sad, each in their part. I detached from the pain and cruelty (human and dolphin alike), struggled to make sense of what was happening and how it related to real world human activities, but unexpectedly found myself moved to tears at the whale's ending song.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use, Medical content, and Death of parent

builtoutofbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Death of parent

4morris4's review against another edition

this book is about a female dolphin who gets latched onto by a parasitic fish and is raped over and over again by a diseased king dolphin. every sentence is traumatic to read. it was so upsetting I DNF'd halfway through. wish I had quit sooner

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

seasonedreadings's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

loesm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Physical abuse

bethbrown_267's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

laurenbastian's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

A terrifying and tragic story that shows us exactly the harm we do to our neighbors on this planet. The story is about dolphins and the complex and sometimes horrifying power dynamics and social structures of the ocean. But it is also about how, amidst and underpinning it all, humans have pushed these aquatic communities to annihilation. This is a book of climate grief that does not shy away from gore and violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

emilyseebold's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Transphobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

aileen_macalister's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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

3.75

How would I describe this book to someone in one sentence?

Dolphin fanfic with an important underlying message and an overtone of sex and violence

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT 

The writing itself is so good! And it's such an interesting subject to cover, how mankind's actions have affected the balance of nature, but it was so hard to get past the amount of times this book describes in detail dolphin sex

It's the circle of life and all that but it was so distracting from the message of the book. The themes of the book are interlaced

1. Eco-fiction/Climate change
2. Feminism

It was an interesting take and one I'll be mulling over for a long time I'm sure. About half way through it I stopped thinking about these dolphins as dolphins and more an ancient alien race, stop me before I fall into conspiracy 

The main character is "not like other girls" and when she leaves the safety of her pod because she has internalided her own flaws she is cap ured and then horribly abused on a number of occasions by other dolphins from another pod but she seems to just gloss over this fact. She becomes more comfortable and at home with her captures than she was at home which was very jarring.

All together a weird experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

ank3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism