Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder

6 reviews

hanyaya's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

Starts slow but gets extremely violent. Kept catching myself saying "oh there's no way it's going to go there..." before it absolutely did. Not even just in 1937 Nanjing, which was, unfortunately, expected. Just because it was obvious what the medicine was doesn't mean it wasn't a horrible march towards the reveal.

I found Grey and Jason just so uninteresting that I didn't want to spend time with them, and the idea that she'd become the most popular hostess by talking about her studies of Nanjing and asking the men if their families had committed war crimes there was strange, but whatever. Grey felt a little like she wasn't a character so much as whatever she needed to be in the moment -- rash and emotional at one moment, calm and rational the next. Patient enough to wait years, impatient enough to be incapable of a conversation that gives us information. Smart enough to study this for so long and figure out the puzzle, that the twist of her ignorance no longer felt genuine but rather just convincing herself, and maybe that's the point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Blood, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Sexual assault

girlpuck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

cappitak's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

sasisaskia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Abortion, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Cannibalism

e_gracereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this book, more than I even expected to. It was horrific — which is to be expected, considering it’s a historical fiction about the Rape of Nanking — but it was incredibly well written, haunting, and mysterious. It’s going to sit with me for a while, I think, especially this: is ignorance forgivable? 

Incredibly poignant. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

maiagaia's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one other than to say I finished it on March 3rd and have only been able to summon the energy to review it today on April 24th. I never thought this could happen, but this book was so bad that I went into a full reading slump.
The plot is so incredibly contrived. Everything has to happen just so for the plot to work, and the author put no creativity into making the WAY it happens make sense. Coincidence after coincidence falls together to create a paper thin plot that had me alternating between rolling my eyes and laughing out loud.
This is especially unfortunate because the characters are (mostly) interesting and some of the scenes have some incredibly well-written tension.
This book also holds the honor of most transphobic book I've ever read. There is a character who is trans, and that fact is used 100% in an attempt to scare the reader. It is obvious that the author was writing this character and thought "wouldn't it be SO scary if this character was a MAN in a DRESS." It is used as a short hand to make the reader fear and distrust the character.

This is compounded by the fact that the character later rapes a man

Because why not? It's all especially unfortunate because the character is intimidating and creepy without these two facets because it is nailed home that she has very particular almost supernatural skills. Too bad we never see how she does it! We just know she can!
Another thing I didn't realize until after I had bought the book is that it is dedicated to Iris Chang, the woman who brought the Nanking Massacre out of obscurity with a book in the late 1990s. The protagonist is very clearly inspired by Chang, and something just sits wrong about a white woman writing a white character doing the work that a Chinese American journalist did in real life. 
At the end of the day, this book is not worth the paper it was printed on because it is badly written. The cherries on top are the unnecessary transphobia and whatever you would call the protagonist/Chang influence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Transphobia, Abortion, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, and Cannibalism