Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Pod by Laline Paull

18 reviews

berodatheelf's review

emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Informative and well researched but absolutely brutal, Laulie Paull leaves no punches. The story weaves humans impact on the environment with feminism but is told uniquely from the POV of various aquatic creatures (mostly dolphins). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

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

hduc's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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

It was brutal, devastating, all too real.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Blood, and Excrement

headstuckinabook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

This book is hard to rate. I did go into it after Lena Norms review so was expecting something different.

There are difficult themes (see content warnings) but most of all its a book on climate change, whilst about dolphins you can see how we could end up in similar dire straights. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

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

mylifeincurls17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism and Addiction

ank3's review

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

julesreadsstuff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I found it a little slow and complicated to get into initially but then once the pace picked up it was exciting and devastating and I didn’t want to put it down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

withlivjones's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

An excellently-crafted story of belonging and survival in the face of ecological crisis, from the perspective of marine life. Paull does a fantastic job of bringing the ocean to life and making every character seem so… human? It’s also super clear how badly the climate crisis has affected the oceans and their wildlife, and Paull doesn’t sugarcoat this at all - don’t go into this book thinking it’s going to be a whimsical story about dolphins because it’s sooo dark. Beautifully written with a lot of emotion - the only thing I didn’t like was that the romance (although I wouldn’t even call it that) at the end felt really rushed to the point that it didn’t make a lot of sense character-wise, it would have been better with a couple more chapters dedicated to developing the relationship between the characters. Other than that, though, I loved it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

contemporarymeepsie's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring sad tense medium-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? No

3.5

Ea is a spinner dolphin that lives in a small pod with her Longi family and kin but when something goes terribly wrong, she decides to leave and gets caught up in the Tursiops megapod of bottlenose dolphins who are crude, violent and possessive. When the ocean demons come calling Ea and her found family have to fight and sacrifice to survive.
This novel is written from the perspective of a dolphin, which in itself, is already interesting. It is certainly unlike many other books I've read and I feel it has a lot of important things to say regarding the ocean and our relationship with the creatures that inhabit it. However I did feel it was a slow book to start. There is an entire subplot about a Wrasse that I had no clue why it was included. I was at 60% of the way through before I got interested. But that isn't to say it is bad. It's actually written very well, and the author did a fantastic job at characterising dolphins and fish so we cared about them as people. Ea is very lovable. Even though he is written to be annoying, I also really liked the Remora as a character.
Overall I found the book interesting but also difficult in places. I'm glad I read it but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Only those with an interest in climate books or books about the ocean.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Child death