Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

9 reviews

ibadella's review against another edition

dark sad tense 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

4.0

why was this listed as a historical romance? i did not get romance vibes. it was like coming of age thriller shitshow

i understand that this book has a very narrow and subjective point of view from the flawed main character but i would have like to see a tiny bit more attention paid to the background characters (who tended to have more marginalized identities and were generally homogenized by jacob’s narration). also sometimes felt like the author was forcing themself to write how they think a straight man thinks and it made us both feel icky

made me emo about zoo animals

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Murder, and Sexual harassment

jlchabotte's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

rubyslippers96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Death of parent

alex_grace1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Sexual content

Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, and Racism

Some warnings about the sexual content

There is essentially a drunk rape scene. it’s not treated as such by the characters but it is mentioned briefly to be non-consensual and where the main character was nearly blackout drunk. Theres also a pretty graphic stripping scene, a brief masturbation scene, and sexual content all up the wazoo.

lauraleafromthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

4.0

Wow. What a story. I felt there were a lot of things I connected to, despite the historical time period and gender and nationality of the main character. I was enthralled by the story. Great writing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Death of parent

cammiem8's review

adventurous sad medium-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

3.0

I can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t enjoy this book more. I love books about old timey cheating, but the love story just didn’t quite grip me. The plot had enough turns to keep me engaged and I did listen through it very quickly. I also didn’t care much for the parts of the book set much later with the old man, I didn’t think the framing device added much of value. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Antisemitism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Animal abuse is constant in the book, but it is very clearly condemned by the protagonist

gabb_reads's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Suicide

Minor: Racial slurs and Antisemitism

jaderweir's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Death of parent

dianesloftis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

Anyone that truly knows me is well aware of my genuine  love for— well, we’ll just say, ‘circus- themed’ stuffs.. a childhood story. 

Movin’ on… Anyway, this is a title that keeps getting mentioned quite often. And so here’s my approach: a read-along (e-book + audiobook) & then, enjoy the picture show! 

🎪Water for elephants by Sara Gruen [2007]

🤡Audiobook narrated by David LeDoux

🍿Movie [2011] starring Robert Pattinson,  Reese Witherspoon, et al.

#HistoricalFiction #Drama #Romance

My word this is such a good book! I did end up doing  a read-along And Wow… Not only am I impressed by how well researched and complete the dual-timeline story is, but the narration for this book is incredible, too. It’s a dramatic, heart-pounding  performance, honestly. The story, largely set aboard a traveling train circus, is action-packed and character driven while cleverly weaving a Biblical story throughout it. However, I didn’t fully grasp the latter, even though I kept noting the multiple Biblical references, until I read an author Q&A offered at the end of the book.

Quite possibly my book of the year. 

⚠️ Warning: Mature Content and Language 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Mental illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Racial slurs

Biblical