Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

14 reviews

cozyscones's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Cannibalism, Animal death, Violence, Gore, Domestic abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Ableism, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Excrement, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Misogyny

sunjaybooks's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring slow-paced

5.0

This book has it all! Gender, family trauma, psychic tortoises, ableism, gay sex, moral ambiguity, genocide, the broad scope of history, magic and myth. It's beautifully written and also deeply deeply violent and yet still humanistic in its portrayal of the aggressors, victims, and all the morally ambiguous people in between.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Excrement, War, Ableism, Alcoholism, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Classism, Self harm, Suicide, and Genocide

ticktock's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

brideshead's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

A perfect blend of first, second, and third person perspective that masterfully evokes folklore, epic fantasy, and brutal human drama. It haunted me the whole time, and it was a visual delight with searing imagery. The characters probably will not leave me for a long while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, War, Excrement, Death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Body horror

uncreativeoops's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-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

3.75

I'm still a bit confused tbh. The worldbuilding was really impressive as well as the characters and plot, but I felt kinda detached from it. Loved the inverted theatre part and the switching to 2nd person POV, which gave the main story the atmosphere of a fairy tale. There are also short parts in first person which I now want in every fantasy novel, it was such a good way of humanising background characters and conveying atmosphere. Sometimes the writing was a bit clunky, but most of the scenes were incredibly visual; I could totally see it as a movie. Or maybe several movies, because every part/day had a completely different vibe and they didn' quite connect. And when it started with this magical theatre and fairy tales about how the moon fell in love with the sea I did not expect this much graphic violence. But definitely a new concept. The closest comparison i can think of is The Forever Sea by Joshua Philipp Johnson though the setting is very difderent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Torture, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Excrement

Minor: Death of parent

saholland's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

Absolutely broke me open and I am not ok

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, War, and Child abuse

kassiereadsbooks's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Murder

incipientdreamer's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Blood, Ableism, Body horror, Cursing, War, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Animal death, Colonisation, Gore, and Death of parent

bittennailbooks's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

 This is a love story to its blade-dented bone 

This book changed my DNA. A frustrating, devastating, and blood soaked love story dedicated to fantasy lovers everywhere. 

Two warriors are tasked with the impossible as they haul a dying mother god through the corrupt lands of her tyrannical children in hopes of stopping their reign once and for all. It holds no punches as it drags you hog tied through each gory act written like a play and told through the ever changing proverbial "I". As gory as the "Poppy Wars" and lyrical as "The Starless Sea", this is your next read for fantasy lovers everywhere. I repeat, read this book now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Body horror, Death of parent, Excrement, Blood, Genocide, Grief, Ableism, Murder, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Homophobia

twocents's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

2.5

What an abrasive story.

There are three things that I think people should know going into it:
1. The story is three layers: you (literally) as a child being told stories by your lola and your father, you watching a dream theater, and the dream theater playing the story that is the description on the back of the book. It's interesting the outer two stories are not mentioned at all in the book's description given that it is literally the setup for the book and is what closes out the story.

2. The story alternates between second, third, and first person, sometimes changing even sentence to sentence in a single paragraph. It takes some getting used to. Read the Amazon preview. If you don't like that bit, you won't like the way this story is told.

3. Although it's not technically grimdark, I have read intentional grimdark that salivates less over its violence and that is less violent. You will read things like

Spoiler

the perspective of a person being eaten alive in ritual cannibalism.

It seems to revel in its grossness at times.

So I don't know who I would recommend this book to. The first two lend itself toward someone who likes a slow paced story (and by god do you get that in the last half of the book), but the last point lends itself to someone who likes a brisk paced story, as grimdark tends to work best when it cuts sharply.

I liked that the world seemed to be doing its thing, regardless of what the heroes were up to. I was interested in seeing Jun succeed. (Keema increasingly felt improbable to me.)

I didn't like the sheer bloat of the story. I thought it was done, and there was another 30+ minutes on my 1.25x speed audiobook. I don't really understand the things that it chose to beat you over the head with to make sure you understood vs. the things that were legitimately interesting that weren't touched on AT ALL.

So I'm left feeling like it was one of the most interesting style of books I read this year, but god is it abrasive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror