Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

52 reviews

peytonktracy's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

That was a long, slow, gut punch in the absolute best way. Like, ouch, oof, but also wow. The prose is absolutely stunning. How immersive the world we observe with the girl is shocking. It’s gritty and painful and brutal and gorgeous and ethereal and wonderful and terrible. While it felt like it dragged on in the beginning, the satisfaction at the end was worth it. An honor to share this pain through the poetry of the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kristapeters's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, Excrement, and Abandonment

monicaa_d's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.0

A really interesting extended character study. The girl, as she is referred to throughout the book, has been mistreated her whole life, from an orphanage all the way to the new world. She escapes the famine-racked settlement after losing the only thing she loves, and witnessing others commit an act of desperation so horrifying that she would rather die frozen in the wilderness than continue starving in the settlement. 

The girl's strong will and perseverance keep her alive as nature seems determined to kill her. We see her reflect on her past, religion, and nature. Ultimately she, who has only ever belonged to others, finds her own freedom and ownership in the only way she ever could.

This isn't a happy story, and it isn't a pretty one- every detail of the girl's days are laid out plainly and harshly. However, the prose in moments of peace is reflective and beautiful in its own sad way. 

Enjoyability  ⭐⭐⭐
Impact ⭐⭐⭐

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Violence, Excrement, Cannibalism, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Colonisation

ohlookatthat's review

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Excrement, and Cannibalism

bookwormcat's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

airrhodes's review

adventurous dark reflective sad 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

5.0

Every once in a while - I can probably count them on one hand - I read a book that is so gorgeous and perfect, I wish I could have written it. This is such a book. Absolutely spectacular, from the plot and character to the historical authenticity, raw and respectful and feminist and heartbreaking. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

sugarplumstories's review

Not for sensitive readers. Very dark and disturbing content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

alpal2020's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

5.0

Stunning! A literary fiction-horror-historical-naturalist journey with Groff’s signature poetic prose. Absolutely stunning.

Listened to the audio book and the narration was really great!!

Trigger Warning: All of them. Every single one. Whichever one popped into your head just now… yes, that’s in there. But it's not gratuitous, it's all important to the main character's development, and it's handled with respect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

machenn's review

challenging slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Excrement

Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

knkoch's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

I found this to be a moving, breathtaking portrait of a mind transcendent over hardship and circumstance. It’s really complete, astounding in its succinct account of, I suppose, a flight. It’s another perfect book to read knowing nothing. This story reminded me so strongly of many of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, where he very gently drops you into a life and lets you feel your way into the details as the characters move. It’s an expert touch to pull that off smoothly; I’ve read so many other books that can’t.

There are a lot of other wonderful things. Lauren Groff does so well at using historical or antiquated language naturally in her prose, and it helped me inhabit this character’s worldview, substantially different from my own. I found this less dense than Matrix, and a little more memorable in its more straightforward, pared-down narrative. I guess I’ll just need to read Groff’s whole catalog now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Cannibalism, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

It’s a bleak world… if you’re concerned, read the blurb/description of the time period this is set in. Pretty much what you can imagine happening in early Jamestown happens. There’s no taggable CW for starvation, but I’d mark that, too.