Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bat by Jo Nesbø

16 reviews

yetanothernastya's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Barely made it through the book. I decided to pick it up because I have heard many people praise Jo Nesbø’s later books. This one, however, is a weird one, at some point it was so bad it was good, but overall I would not recommend this book. Every character is a caricature. Women are either fat, annoying and undesirable by the main character or sexy, young, and cheerful. They are also very “written by men”, I laughed so hard at some intimate scenes, it felt like a teenager was commissioned to try and imagine how adults date. There was so much racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism within the first 30 books, I almost DNF the book. The story itself was kinda boring and not well told or developed. The choice of a killer and their motives also made me go “this is definitely written by a white dude in the 90s”. Honestly, skip this one and read the ones in the series that are actually good 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Colonisation, and Classism

h3ykatrina's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

midwifekt's review against another edition

dark

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

2.0

You can't keep great white sharks in captivity*. That was silly, and easy to find with minor research, and how am I supposed to take anything else seriously? 

In non-shark problems, I realize this was published a million years ago (1997), but yikes. Cannot say I recommend in this year of two thousand and twenty three. 

*Monterey Bay Aquarium had a research program in the mid-2000s, and the longest they could keep one was for 198 days. I was privileged enough to see one while it was there, but you just can't keep them alive in captivity. They get aggressive, and don't eat, and die. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Rape, Suicide, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

slimepuppy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Despite the blatant homophobia, transmisogyny and fatphobia, this book could have been way more fun - except when it finally begins to pick up the pace, the story grinds to a halt as the main character spirals, taking all the moderate fun time the reader was having with him down the drain.

Not terrible, but it took too long to get actually intersting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Racism, Rape, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs and Injury/Injury detail

ekmook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

I don’t even know where to begin with how deeply offensive and problematic this entire book was…even for 1997.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

emmajh91's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

xteax's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, and Alcohol

nieva098's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Colonisation

oddreads_nicolestins's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I truly enjoyed this one! I don't know why I was expecting the story to be based more in Norway- BUT I was pleasantly surprised that the book was based in Australia. What really made this book 5-stars for me, was all the details and nuance about the Aboriginal characters. Nordic reads can definitely fall flat by lacking diverse characters (for example, having very similar characters skew either good or bad could turn a story into a pile of sameness after 300 pages, depending on what you're into of course). By adding the views of more than one Aboriginal person, as well as having them represent different tribes and having different upbringings/lifestyles, I was able to really get a feel for them as people and so (without naming names) I was actually shocked/saddened when the plot twists occurred.

There were also other characters that Nesbø gave life to that might've been abbreviated or omitted completely by another author. For this I appreciate him and think if you appreciate character-driven crime reads, then his books are for you! There's also plenty plot to go around! Excited to start book 2 for #nordicnovember

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Drug use

Moderate: Death and Trafficking

Minor: Suicide and Colonisation

blackmetalblackheart's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

I was extremely disappointed in this book. It has been on my to-read pile for awhile, and I finally got around to it because of a buddy read. The Bat suffers a bit from translation. It has that wooden feeling to it when things feel like a direct translation instead of something that becomes fluid and living in both languages. Or the original writing could just be wooden too. I do not really know. But that is the least of the issues when it comes to this novel. I cannot get past the fetishism of indigenous culture, the racism, the misogyny, the women experiencing tragedy mostly as a way to further the male lead, the inklings of homophobia peaking throughout the pages, the treatment and portrayal of sex workers and their industry, the macho maleness that is celebrated, the police's disregard for anything but solving the case, the unbelievable actions that several characters take, and the overall logic of the whole fucking thing. I know this was written in 1997, but I do not have time for this bullshit. Ugh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Rape, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Police brutality, and Kidnapping

Minor: Fatphobia and Homophobia