Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

23 reviews

mmefish's review

sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

I expected way, way more from this book. It is well written, atmospheric... But it's lacking so much.
The characters, for one, are underdeveloped; even Agnes, who we spend most of the time with. Hamnet himself barely shows up on the page. (Why is it even called "Hamnet", when it's really not about him? Though I'm not sure what this book is really about.)
It's tropey: a weird witchy young woman, an evil stepmother, twins switching places.
So many hints and secondary plots but nothing was done with them in the end.
The ending is a big letdown. We spend dozens of pages reading about depression and grief, and then it all ends abruptly.
It's... okay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Pregnancy, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Animal cruelty

rosenau's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, War, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child abuse, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Physical abuse

Minor: Miscarriage, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Sexual content

pollyhall's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I preferred the story of Agnes and Bartholomew rather than Hamnet.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Death of parent, Gore, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Child death, and Infidelity

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

haley313's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn’t know anything about the personal life of Shakespeare or his family prior to reading this book, though as others have noted this is essentially a story about Agnes. I think the writing was lovely, and I enjoyed many of the characters. The description of the travel of the plague was fascinating. There were several scenes that made me weep. I loved the tender depictions of womanhood, sisterhood, motherhood. However, I feel like the magic waned for me in the last quarter of the book. I didn’t love the ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child abuse

bethybooevans's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Pregnancy

thechronicreader's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I love Shakespeare so I was intrigued by Hamnet as soon as I heard about it, as it’s a fictionalized imagining of what his family’s life may have been like. The star here was Maggie O’Farrell’s descriptive writing. This was one of the most vividly visually descriptive books I’ve ever read. I feel more like I’ve watched a movie than read a book because her writing painted such clear pictures in my mind. Swipe for some short quotes from the book as examples. Highly recommend for lovers of Shakespeare, historical fiction, and beautiful writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty

laurendenton's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Child death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Infidelity, Body horror, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Sexual content, Vomit, Excrement, and Animal cruelty

lillythebluepaladin's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

What is given may be taken away, at any time. Cruelty and devastation wait for you around corners, inside coffers, behind doors: they can leap out at you at any time, like a thief or brigand. The trick is never to let down your guard.

WOW!!! This will in fact go down as a classic! That was a beautiful, emotional, and sometimes kinda hard read, and I seriously enjoyed it!

SUCH AN EASY 5🌟 BOOK REVIEW FOR THIS ONE! The writing? Stunning! The characters? So realistic! The story itself? Perfect. Finally booktok actually recommends something good, this and Achilles!

It is about a certain VERY well known play writer’s wife and family, but the most beautiful part about this book is that his name is never said. We really get to see the man who wrote the plays, and we really got to see into his badass wife’s mind, and heartbreakingly enough, we also really got to know every corner of their children’s personalities, and then something not-so-nice happens in the middle :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Sexism, and Child abuse

Minor: Religious bigotry

helena_sp_07's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Violence, and Blood