Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

12 reviews

imlfox's review against another edition

adventurous reflective fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

peggyd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

4.5

This is a bleak book that I read at the wrong time, picking it up right after I finished another bleak book (Demon Copperhead) and so I definitely need a break from bleak books. But I didn't know that when I started this. 

Having said that, it's a Lauren Groff book, so it's beautifully written. Really just stunning prose from start to finish. I smelled the often vile smells, I could feel the bugs, fleas, and lice crawling on me and setting up shop in my clothes. I could see the beauty of nature: the waterfalls, the budding trees, the forest canopy, the birds diving and telling their stories. It's an immersive story. 

Lamentations (AKA Zed) is on the run. Her mistress's vile new husband (a priest, natch) dragged them across the Atlantic to the new world and a fort where everyone is starving. After the death of her charge, the child Bess, Zed sees something vile, grabs up what little she can, steals her mistress's heavy cloak and gloves and RUNS. This is a story of survival; it's also a coming of age story for Zed who starts with a deep faith in God that gradually shifts as she looks at this new world with more experienced eyes. Each encounter, each struggle wears her down while also opening her up to a deeper understanding of herself, her past (spoiler: also bleak), and, ultimately, the brutality of the natural world, even as she grasps that colonization will only blight out its beauty and possibility. 

We are just with her (and a few fearsome men), running with her, wondering where it could possibly end. For me, it ended how I expected--bleak--but the beauty of getting there and the beauty of the final lines, well, whew, they blew me away. Truly, I think Lauren Groff is a genius to make me love a book as relentless as this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Excrement

mkwoods's review

adventurous dark 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? No

4.5

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend for folks who enjoy historical fiction and don’t mind a dark, often graphic and gruesome survival story. The writing is beautiful and I was invested in the main character.

I had fun guessing where in Virginia the girl was at various points in the story, and I wish there had been notes of some kind explaining the historic and geographic references.

Spoiler

I did find an article from the Smithsonian describing evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown during the Starving Time, specifically of a 14-year-old girl who I assume the child Bess is inspired by.

At one point there’s a mention of a purple bird disappearing and other birds coming in that the girl recognizes as being from England, and I’m curious to know if these are real or just vague references to the ecological impact of colonists introducing invasive species.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Excrement

Moderate: Death and Animal death

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, and Child death

flowchelle's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Terminal illness, Vomit, Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Excrement

pollyflorence's review

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Gore, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Cannibalism, Grief, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

elzbethmrgn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Excrement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism, Colonisation, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cannibalism, Child death, and Murder

fiberreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

carax561's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Cannibalism, Excrement, Blood, Abandonment, and Medical content

hmatt's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Lauren Groff's prose, as always, is viscerally descriptive and beautiful. This is such an interesting follow-up in juxtaposition to Matrix, as well: The main characters are both Christian women who are both, in a sense, left to fend for themselves in a remote place, but they are very, very, different.

I am a person who likes books that don't have a whole lot of plot, so I was fine with that aspect - but beware if you're not. There are some introspections the girl had that feel a bit too on-the-nose for me (i.e. a bit too "woke", lol), but otherwise I found this a fun, short, atmospheric read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Child abuse, Confinement, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Death, Gore, Ableism, Terminal illness, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Vomit

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Death of parent

elficus's review

adventurous challenging dark sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Ableism, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Murder, Rape, Vomit, and Excrement