Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

25 reviews

veronyqueso's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This is such a cute story! The magical children are so charming and the main character grew immensely throughout the story. The humor is endearing and there are so many life lessons about kindness, friendship, and being yourself. The first half of the novel is kinda cheesy and slow, but I became more invested as I read on. Very wholesome read :’) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

adrienanthony's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book as sweet as this one. The characters were so loveable and precious to me that I couldn’t go a page without smiling at their interactions. This is a new comfort read for me and I’ve recommended it to all of my friends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, and Death of parent

The main character has internalized fatphobia that is addressed as something to overcome in a route to self-love.

chelle22's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment

johnnylyserg's review against another edition

funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

For those coming here being concerned about Linus' pet cat: She is fine and thriving. There are however very short mentions of past incidents that led to 'dead fish' or non-serious talk about 'liking dead things'. As someone who hardly tolerates animal cruelty and death in books and films, I didn't feel the need to actually mention this trigger warning. However, having the Antichrist and a pet cat on the loose, I was concerned finding that others have set warnings for animal deaths wishing someone would have written that for my benefit.

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Oh my gosh! THIS BOOK! I'm so happy I read it! It made me feel happy and yet there was a time when my eyes burned due to the tears in my eyes. I loved all our main characters! EVERY. SINGLE. ONE! I was so unwell after I finished it. Heartbroken even. I love this book so much! 🥰😥

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Child abuse

This book does tackle themes of discrimination and prejudice. And how rhetoric like that can shape the individuals as well as the society affected by it.

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

Read For:

Fantasy

Slow Burn

Found Family

Idiots in Love

Happy Ending

Think Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibes but kinda queer.  I just felt kinda neutral about it.  The humor was okay, the characters were okay, and the setting was kinda meh.  I just felt like I had to force myself to keep reading and if I didn’t already own the book I would have stopped.  Also, I thought there would be more queer rep to be honest so that was kinda disappointing.  Not to mention the fatphobia.

I wasn’t going to read this given the reviews I’ve been seeing recently, however, I already own the first two books so I figured I’d see if it was as bad as some of the reviews were saying.  And honestly, I just didn’t understand the hype about it.  Even not knowing what the book was based on it was barely a 3-star rating for me, it just fell flat to me.

However, learning that this was based on the Sixties Scoop and how the author decided to turn what was a cruel and tragic piece of history he read about on Wikipedia about how the Canadian government removed a bunch of indigenous children from their literal homes and away from their family only to be adopted to white, middle-class families and he then took that information and basically turned it into a happy little fantasy where the kids live not in an “orphanage” but a “home” like, dude, why?

This kind of thing is still something native people are dealing with and as a white person, it should not be something you’re involved in like this.  In America the Supreme Court literally is going to be voting soon on overturning ICWA so states can regain control to remove Native children from their homes and families, this isn’t just some fantasy.  This story could have been written way better and in a way that did romanticize trauma and make light of a literal genocide.

I just wouldn’t recommend this one.  There are some links on where I got my information from if you’re interested along with two reviews I think do a better job of explaining this than I did.

Links:

Source: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617930246/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=bookmark-ITBC&xid=0efbabda

Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop

Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4032060130

Another Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3601407534

Rep: Achillean, Queer MC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

caitlinjadams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

What a lovely, lovely book about humanity. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Xenophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

A real life plane crash is discussed in one scene. There are a few uncomfortable jokes made about child characters.
Not sure how to tag it, but the fact that the fantasy oppression narrative was partially inspired by the Sixties Scoop is very much something to be aware of.

annieisawesome's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I loved this book. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I picked it up because I saw that it was a very popular book— for good reason! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, and Cannibalism