Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

89 reviews

nottheexplorer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lavenderzinnia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Outing, and Classism

rubyd2012's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.5

I HATE THIS, GODDD IT MAD ME SO MADDDD I LOVE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO CHARACTERS BUT DEAR GODDD, I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THATTTTT AT THE ENDDD PLEASEEE STOPPP MAKING ME CRYYYYY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

heartsforhawkins's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

ouch. 

no further words.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

_pauline's review against another edition

adventurous sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

first of all, this book is GORY af

If you like greek mythology & don’t mind the content warnings, this might be for you. (ignore my review then, though)

The combination of war & romance was weird - I don’t need to read about how beautiful someone looks while killing people; neither did I want to read about 13 year olds forced to have sex (if that’s needed to accurately describe what that time was like, it could’ve at least been less detailed); same with animal killings, though ig that too is unavoidable considering the context

I didn’t love the pacing, character development & all the talk about feet etc?? Achilles got progressively more unlikeable (this really is a story about his irrational, insufferable pride), and I cared a lot more about Briseis. She was so right when she said

'You care more for him in death than in life […] Kill me. It will not bring him back. He was worth ten of you. Ten! And you sent him to his death!' […] He fought to save you, and your darling reputation.
Because he could not bear to see you suffer! […] You have never deserved him. I do not know why he ever loved you. You care only for yourself! […] I hope that Hector kills you.'

'Do you think I do not hope the same?' he asks

The last 100 pages were kind of page-turning & heartbreaking though and it got better and better until the very last page. Can’t say I always enjoyed reading this, but I don’t think it’s a bad book.
It didn’t live up to the hype in my opinion BUT tbf I never cared - or knew much - about greek mythology, nor am I a big fan of war novels or romance, so I really am the worst possible person to review this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy

davbat's review against another edition

emotional 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

5.0

Extremely tragic, even more than you'd expect going into it with knowledge of the story. Time after time, Miller shows you what could have been if not for fate/pride/war. Extremely tragic doomed romance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Slavery, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Outing

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Cannibalism, and Abandonment

Rape and murder are just as common as in the original myth but without any of the euphemism

majestictrilobite's review

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

anmane's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

The book was well written in terms of language and pacing, but the subject matter - by this I mean the war, not the romance - was hard for me to stomach. The focus is on the male characters, as it is in the source material, and how women, children or indeed all humans are treated is not sugarcoated. Also, because of the subject matter, there is a lot of violence, gore and cruelty. I also hated Achilles as a character, which made the motivation of Patroclus' actions hard to understand. Will not read again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Pregnancy

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Yeah I cried. 

Madeline Miller is a beautiful writer and I did enjoy her retelling of this myth, but I didn't find it to be particularly remarkable. 

I think the thing I found most puzzling was Patroclus' inclination towards saving women from being war trophies when this was very much a sociopolitical norm during this period in time. Of course that's not to say I wanted to see more scenes of women being brutalized or that it's impossible for there to be any person during this period to disagree with such practices, but I think when making the decision to have that be one of the main characters in this myth for the purpose of having a more likable protagonist, it becomes a story that lacks the social and cultural context of the historical myths by changing certain themes to fit modern sensibilities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Child abuse and Alcohol

mconroy9137's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Alcohol