Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Così si perde la guerra del tempo by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

16 reviews

dannothedino's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Animal death, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment and Cannibalism

banscout's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

i said midway through reading this that i wanted to inhale the words and grasp desperately to each syllable as if it were the last breath i ever took, but honestly, after finishing the book i now know that i want for more than that. i want to tear apart my heart and embed each word onto each and every artery. this is a masterpiece, well and truly. i have never read such a thrilling piece that has had me in ruins because good god, that writing is not even phenomenal, it is a word not even fathomed to language yet. this is a gift to the writers told that to write, you must meet tradition. fuck tradition. write with the flowers in mind, and love with your words entwined.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Body horror, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Gore, Cannibalism, Torture, Animal cruelty, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Medical content and Grief

mobymaize's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy shit this book rocks my socks off. I genuinely love sci-fi that doesn’t need need a complete explanation or description of super complicated politics. I just need my time & space lesbians and I’m happy :)

Also romance through letters and missives is incredible. Especially when it’s queer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Murder, Torture, War, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Grief, Death, and Medical content

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Grief, War, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal death, Medical content, Confinement, Murder, Torture, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Cursing, Abandonment, Gaslighting, and Child death

abookwormspov's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny slow-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: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Medical trauma, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Murder

erikagibson126's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Medical content, Violence, War, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Animal cruelty, Stalking, Animal death, and Grief

Minor: Confinement

amre23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, War, Death, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit, Colonisation, and Suicide

gabgeh'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A confusingly wonderful, overly-poetic epistolary adventure through a time war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Gore, and Genocide

saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

"I dream of you. I keep more of you inside my mind, my physical, my personal, squishy mind, than I keep of any other world or time."

Okay now I get this.

I first read This Is How You Lose the Time War like exactly three years ago in 2020 (certainly one of the years ever) and I initially gave it three stars. I didn't quite get it and I didn't understand the plot. Honestly I still don't entirely understand the plot.

Time War was best recommended by Bigolas Dickolas; go in without knowing anything. Having completely forgotten everything from my first read besides time travel, confusion, and gay this read like an entirely new novel to me! Honestly, stop reading my review and just read the book free of any expectations.

You need to be free from expectations because the book is so unconventional. It's stream of conscious, poetic prose that mixes metaphor and what's literally happening in the story takes center stage. Due to the bizarre nature of the writing and story itself, it's a little tricky to understand. This works for the concept as a time travel novel about entities beyond human comprehension fighting a war across time and the multiverse and two agents that somehow fall in love.

Part of my issue I think last time was that I was expecting to understand the world building, but really it's not meant to be understood. This is a story that requires an extremely high suspension of disbelief to work, and if you find that suspension of disbelief it becomes immersive and psychedelic. It makes it feel truly like something out of this world.

It's also achingly romantic and yearnful. Blue and Red falling for each other through letters delivered in increasingly complex methods as they find a strange love with each other, an understanding deeper than anything they have with anyone on their sides of the war. It's not only queer in the sense that it's sapphic, it's also queer in that Red and Blue in a sense go beyond gender and are a couple completely outside of heteropatriarchal norms. It's not just queer, it's queer.

Incredibly glad I took another chance on this story. Though I was still quite confused, I found myself reveling in it this time around, enjoying the weirdness and beauty of the story and rereading sections to better understand the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Animal cruelty, and Blood

bakatan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Murder

Minor: Gore, Torture, War, and Confinement