Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

107 reviews

sierrajhansen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

this was slow to start for me, but i started really getting into it about 1/3 of the way through. the story was very immersive and i kept forgetting i was reading! i especially loved the animal characters, but the amount of violence/animal cruelty/pain/suffering/abuse throughout the story threw me for a loop. a great circus story and an interesting ending

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

dancingprince's review against another edition

Mainly it made me sad, and I wasn't invested in a plot because there wasn't a clear through line to follow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

poodlemama99's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty

celery's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

alyssatuininga's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I have had this book for years and never got around to reading it. The story was all over the place- a sweet story of memories from an old man, a scathing story about the rampant (graphic) animal abuse in a circus, a romance,  a sad testament to the dangers of Prohibition for alcoholics. Honestly throw in the super raunchy prostitution and rape of the main character and I didn't know what to feel or think. It was a strange book, the ending wrapped up in a neat sweet bow. Overall it was just ok and I kept finding I didn't want to pick it up. Guess I should have left this one on the shelf.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

sophtank's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Gore

kathrynwendt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

nikoleh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

alexmall029's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Alcohol