Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Matrix by Lauren Groff

49 reviews

thewritebooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-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

This read like a quiet masterpiece.

Immediately after finishing this, having cried through the last 15 pages, all I could think about was the beautiful way that all of the themes came together at the end to tell a story of life and loss. We travelled through the role of medieval women in the church, female solidarity and sisterhood, sapphic love and desire, the cycles of the seasons and the catholic calendar, power and greed and the sin of creation, followed by the moral weighting of these sins against these women's souls.

The prose was never dramatic, and by avoiding direct speech throughout, the author adds to the feeling of being another witness to the years marching onwards at the Abbey. The messages in this book were very close to my heart and I would be interested in going back with tabs to track and analyse those themes a bit more, having the hindsight now to see how well they were laid out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Rape, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Classism, Excrement, Death of parent, and Dementia

yikeslou's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

French mystic lesbian crusader warrior nun is a main character made SO specifically for me, a lesbian who studied the lais of Marie de France, female mysticism, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Anglo-French religious history in uni. My god this book slapped. I finished it in two marathon readings because I couldn't put it down.

Spoiler

also I wanted Nest and Marie to end up together so bad once Marie had settled her pride later in life but ahhh it's fine

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Death

Minor: Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

water_and_shade's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.0

A beautiful study on ambitious women, female friendship and love. The prose was stunning - several passages I went back and re-read because they were so lovely, lyrical and evocative without being abstract. Some of the religious content went over my head but it was nicely balanced and contextual, I enjoyed learning about this period of history as I know very little about it. The inhabitants of the Abbey were sensitively portrayed and I loved learning their quirks. Marie was a great protagonist - strong, ambitious, loving and flawed. Overall I enjoyed this a lot more than Fates and Furies, and would be keen to read more of Groff's work.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Death

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Blood, and Animal death

eliya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This book was a challenge for me. 
It took me 15h 21m technically, with the Libby app open whether or not I was actually reading. 

I’ve never read a historical fiction book for me, and the beginning was a little slow. Once it picked up, the pace ebbed and flowed, and, I began to appreciate how beautifully it is written. So many passages that I want to keep and remember forever, the word choice and the poetic cadence of Lauren’s Groff’s writing is best described by a friend of mine as “delicious.” absolutely. 

I love women and I’m so glad I read this book even though this book is way smarter than I will ever be. Gonna go finish weeping now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Cancer, Animal death, Torture, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Slavery, War, Animal cruelty, and Forced institutionalization

achilliad's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad 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

Matrix blends ephemeral interiority of the characters with moments of tense action. It's a character-driven book, but periods of deep reflection are broken by difficult moments in monastic life that help keep up the pace of the book and prevent the tedium of endless introspection. 

Matrix's management of religion and the deific was especially interesting to me. Deific importance and a very real intrusion of the deific into normal life simultaneously exist and do not. It seems to capture the ineffable quality of religions that are both constantly changing and also claim to be stable and immutable. The presentation of the Christian god here reminds me of Greek gods more than anything; technically present but not the ultimate director of all action and, when their is deific influence, changing the world in complex ways with complex motivations (rather than the unilaterally good and kind god or the unilaterally vengeful god the Christian god has been read as at various points in history). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

leneliest's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

adymae11's review against another edition

emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

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

Minor: Mental illness, Grief, Dementia, Violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Cancer, and Animal death

bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I really wanted to like this book as the premise sounded so interesting! Unfortunately I just found it really boring and a bit of a slog to get through ☹️

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Animal death, Death, and Child death

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Animal death, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Cancer, Body shaming, Mental illness, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, War, Islamophobia, and Terminal illness

edamamebean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Probably the best book I’ll read all year. It’s small in scale—never leaving the abbey—but it’s proportions are mythic. The writing is so beautiful that I had to stop and underline often. Lauren Groff is not only a good writer, she’s also a wise one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Child death, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Violence, Dementia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Vomit, Bullying, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and War