Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

15 reviews

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

This was super well written and very tense, i loved the short chapters and the building of tension but i just wish there had been slightly more horror that it built too

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horizonous's review against another edition

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

2.0


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blanketpirate's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0


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mangofandango's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

"Little Eyes" is a narrative made up of a series of alternating vignettes from the POV of several recurring characters and a few one-offs as well. That set up makes it sometimes a bit hard to follow at first, though as things go along the recurring characters firmed up for me and I could easily keep track of who was who. It's like a collection of short stories set up around the concept of the technology central to the plot - internet connected toys who are operated by a random "dweller" anywhere in the world, and owned by "keepers" who allow the toy access to their home through movement and webcam/audio. Those are one-way connections, so unless the involved users devise a way to communicate, the dwellers can see and hear the keepers but the keepers cannot tell who dwells in their device. Obviously there is a huge range of possible ways this scenario can play out touchingly, heroically, sweetly, and a zillion ways it can be absolutely horrific to consider. These short stories are basically brief explorations of some of those possibilities. I enjoyed it, and I wished for a bit more depth, exploration, and back story to some of them - which honestly, may have been an intentional choice on the part of the author, since those feelings are very similar to the one-way connection a dweller has with a keeper? Anyway, I thought it was interesting. While it's very obviously A Commentary For Our Times, it's...well, it's a fair assessment. Of course, this book leans heavily into the darkest interpretations, but  we all know the darkest ones do exist in the technologies we consider (culturally, if not factually) to be benign. 

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willardfillmore's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • 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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