Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Es kann nur eine geben by Soman Chainani

19 reviews

peachmoni's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

My goodness, was

Sophie

horrible. I wonder if her

change of heart

will stick. I didn't love that the school wasn't diverse - or at least, it wasn't clear that everyone wasn't white. I did see a few non-English names, but there wasn't enough detail to tell. I spent a good chunk of the book thinking there was one token Black boy: Nicholas is described as "dark-skinned" a few times. However, later in the book, his skin is described as tanned - not a description often given to Black people.

The school is also quite gendered and heteronormative, and in this day and age, I think it's odd for that to be presented and not countered. At least there's a

same gender kiss at the end.

Oh, and the one fat character's power is making chocolate out of anything....?! Is she fat because she's making chocolate or is she making chocolate because she's fat? Either way, I don't think that's a good look...

I hope the next book in the series addresses these issues. If not, I don't think I'll be continuing with the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

sleepy_panda1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Violence

_alyssar_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

kim_lommaert's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death of parent

cozywithraven's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Slavery

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I picked this up because I enjoyed the film, although I didn't realise it was based on a children's book. It did contain some very undisguised dark themes though, so if it wasn't for the age of the characters, the writing style and some of the humour, I'd be tempted to call it YA.

It's a shame to see that children's stories still rely on fatphobia and making fun of "ugly" people for humour, and there was a lot of stereotyping of what "good" and "evil" people look like – although a lot of this is critiqued by the narrative, there were some blurred lines: for example, while we are shown that being mean to Dot about her fatness is bad, the author also mentions her size nearly every time she appears, and her size and appetite makes up most of her characterisation. Thankfully, there wasn't a hooked nose in sight, unlike in the film. 

While the plot dragged a bit in places, I really enjoyed the characters in this book and loved the portrayal of a character's descent into madness and the protagonists' respective identity crises. It was a really fun, if dark, read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Mental illness

hayleythegoose's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Homophobia, Blood, and Death of parent

ashleylowry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Abandonment

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty and Torture

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

1.5

I know a lot of the stereotypes presented in the book are based on tropes often seen in fairytales, but when you spend all 500 pages reenforcing them instead of showing how good and bad people can’t just be categorized into archetypes, it just becomes sexist, fatphobic, and a bunch of other problematic shit. I just don’t understand what exactly was the author’s goal – whether to dismantle or reaffirm fairytale tropes, because it comes off as reaffirming them.

The romance also doesn’t make sense. I know romances between princes and princesses are also part of fairytale tropes, but they were definitely trying to force something real between Agatha and Tedros, and there was just no chemistry at all. Like the only thing that drew him to Agatha during the tests was a “feeling”, and after realizing that she’s good and not a liar, he’s in love with her all of a sudden? Ok. The characters, as well as the story, were very two-dimensional and had no growth, and the ending felt rushed.

I also want to add on that Sophie and Agatha are supposed to be best friends but not only was Sophie a shit person, but she was also a shit friend. Readers are provided plenty of context on why Sophie is perfect for the School of Evil, but we don’t see any good memories between Sophie and Agatha that show why they’re friends with each other. Instead, you see Sophie barge her way to Agatha’s house regularly to build good credit, give her nasty cookies, and call her ugly.

The book felt long and tedious to get through because 1. we saw way too much of Sophie’s POV, especially for how insufferable and unselfaware she is. 2. Agatha just gets manipulated over and over and over again. ENOUGH.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury