Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Historia naturalna smoków by Marie Brennan

23 reviews

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This was excellent, I loved everything about it, I just looked very historical fantasy, especially with dragons 

I can't believe her husband died!! That was so heartbreaking, he was so good for her

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

marinwiedenhof's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Miscarriage

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

If someone asked me if it were possible to simultaneously copy the Victorian memoir style and acknowledge the political and social culture that created it, I would ask if they liked dragons and hand them A Natural History of Dragons. Lady Isabella Amherst is a fascinating character as she tells the story decades later of her first expedition into the treacherous mountains of Vystrana in search of information about the biology of dragons. The split between the Isabella who is narrating the book and the Isabella we see in the narrative itself is astoundingly well-depicted, showing what decades of research and growth have given her over her younger counterpart. The care given to all aspects of the worldbuilding (religion, dragon and other creatures' biology, economics, politics, even language) creates an incredibly believable and lifelike setting. I cannot recommend this book enough!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Antisemitism, Trafficking, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Cursing, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

The Vystrani religious practices very closely mimic orthodox Judaism, so I've categorized Isabella's comment about her younger self writing the Vystrani religious practices in a exoticizing/fetishizing light as similar to antisemitism (although this is in no way obvious in the text itself).

Technically the villain's burn is from acid and not fire, but the injuries are described similarly.

mandareads222's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Alcohol

Minor: Religious bigotry

euphemiajo's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcohol

judassilver's review against another edition

This book did a couple things I didn't enjoy: the retrospective interjection of the narrator recalling past events (the "I may be old now..." or "though I didn't know it then" type) and the fantasy names for what is very clearly our modern world. Call an England an England, please, not "Scirland". Also please note that the memoir part of the title weighs much more heavily than the dragon part, this is very much the story of an upper class woman struggling to foster science minded interests in a world of Victorian sensibilities. Set your expectations accordingly. (Most of the dragons featured are dead, suffering captivity, or being hunted. The MC also has some very classist and colonialist beliefs). This book (and series) is well written and definitely has an audience, I just bounced hard off it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Miscarriage and Injury/Injury detail

readandfindout's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy

ophycore's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Grief, and Classism

Minor: Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

squinnittowinit's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective 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? No

3.5

I love any world that has dragons in it, but I didn't enjoy how Victorian all the main characters were. I know, that's how it was meant to be, but I found all the misogyny and xenophobia left a bad taste in my mouth. 

It's written as a memoir, so the fictional author as the narrator is writing about a time in the far past, and she does say that she finds some of the sexism to be ridiculous now, but she still makes weird "men vs women" statements that just reinforce harmful gender stereotypes. 

She also read as very Victorian British, in that she was a noble from a colonizing nation

on a journey to a colonized nation, full of privilege and perceived superiority. She freely insults the local people and culture and looks down on them for having less than her, and in the end, has barely any more appreciation for them when she leaves.

This book felt written from the perspective of a colonizer with the assumption that colonizer cultures are better than others and everyone should aspire to be like them.

She's also very callous about killing dragons for science, which I didn't appreciate, as someone who respects nature and living things.

Still, I enjoyed the dragons and I enjoyed the mystery plot. I just wish it had more modern values.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and Colonisation

flowerpaladin's review against another edition

I really wanted to like this book so badly. But I just couldn't connect with the main character at all. Her voice is so dry and dispassionate... I guess from the premise I was sort of hoping for a fantasy version of Amelia Peabody. I'll also add that her husband is about as bland as a sack of potatoes. There is zero romance in this book, which was disappointing for me. And the relationship with the husband was odd... it felt like Isabella was being painted as a pseudo-feminist, but her husband still babied her and didn't seem to respect her as an equal, and she was sort of okay with it? The last straw was when they 

butchered a dragon "for science,"

  and she was totally okay with that, too. This book is definitely NOT for dragon lovers, I'll say that much! The dragons are animals and treated as such, and the main character is more interested in sketching their muscles and bones than understanding and appreciating them. It just felt a bit weird and off... like I said, hard to connect with her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Miscarriage