Reviews tagging 'Blood'

H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

13 reviews

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

It's a beautiful book, largely about the author's grief around loosing her father, closely followed by a retelling of the biography of a horrible, flawed man and his hawk from the past. The passages about her hawk are so real you feel she's preening her feathers in front of you but these are third to the aforementioned.

Perhaps I'd built this book up too much in my head. After all, it's on a subject I find so interesting and I've had it on my shelf a good four years before it was read. It was slow and I found myself disappointed that the book neatly finished, only to start yet ANOTHER chapter. I wouldn't read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Depression, antidepressants, hunting, hunting of animals, guns, misogyny

caramiaculpa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Read this for Defector Reads a Book and was not disappointed. Yes, it’s a mix of biography, memoir, and treatise on grief. Beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Outing, Colonisation, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.75

This book is like a gut punch—grief is a funny little thing. It works in ways that are hard to predict or identify. And this book puts that in the most beautiful phrasing possible. The hawking stuff kinda grossed me out but the way that Macdonald interwove t.h. white’s experiences was really compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia

jes312's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

I loved the book "My Side of the Mountain" growing up, so I loved reading about the actual training of a hawk. I love Mabel and the author's descriptions of her hunting, playing, and reacting to the world. I wasn't as intrigued by the inclusion of T. H. White as a reoccurring facet of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent

zoinkie's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

wordswithjustine's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

As a fan of The Once and Future King and nature writing and as someone whose dad died less than 2 months ago, this was the right book at the right time for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent

As a bit of a T.H. White fan because of The Once and Future King, I was disturbed to learn many challenging things about him that I never knew before. It was interesting, but not always in a good way for me.

rcsreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

It's part memoir, part about hawks and part a biography of T.H. White. The writing is beautifu,  and I liked how it dealt with grief. On the other hand, Hawking seems incredibly cruel to the animals and T.H. White sounds like a horrible person!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

mandkips's review

challenging emotional reflective sad

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, and Mental illness

Minor: Blood

jenlovesbooksandcoffee's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Antisemitism, and Abandonment

_haggis_'s review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent