Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

59 reviews

marycage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? N/A

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Police brutality, Murder, and War

Moderate: Death of parent

spudsimple's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

2.5

I loved Year of Wonder and with all the hype around this book was so excited to read it.  Unfortunately, it just didn't hit the same way for me for a couple of reasons.  First, I really wasn't enthralled with the subject matter.  This solidified that I am not a horse girl and never will be and I could honestly care less about horses and horse culture.  With that, the book started off super slow for me and it just felt tedious to get through at points.  My other main critique is that the weaving in of race relations in the United States, specifically the exploitation of black men through slavery to today, felt clunky and ill conceptualized.  It was very clear that a white woman wrote those characters and there was a marked difference in the teasing out of characters such as Jess and those of Jarrett and Theo.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Animal death

kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is incredible. It makes you think, feel, laugh. I love how everything gets connected in the end. I couldn't put it down, I'm so excited to discuss it with my book club. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

kendoll_renea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, War, and Classism

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

chlschn's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Racism

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

emotional informative sad fast-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Violence, and Police brutality

jourdanicus's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? No

3.75

I'm finding it so hard to rate this book. 

Based on the summary and my past experience with the author, I figured this would be a resounding 5⭐ read for me. The going was really good, and I loved the writing style. Having multiple narrators made the audiobook so engaging (although the English narrator for Theo has an awful American accent... Lol, sorry).

But... I just... Felt that the ending was SUCH a flop. Maybe I'm spoiled on having happy endings from reading so much romance, I don't know...

Aside from the ending, I mainly have complex feelings on how the topic of race was handled in this book. There was so much detail and sensitivity, and yet... Not a lot of nuance? I know from the Afterword that Brooks really did her research for this book, including having Black early readers, which is good to do. But there were still some parts that felt a little forced. And then (back to my problems with the ending)

to kill Theo off, in a police shooting no less?

Like... Why? I'm not against tragedy in a story, but tragedy that seems to serve no purpose to the plot? Okay, maybe that was the point, since police violence against Black people is so senseless in real life. But I was then made uncomfortable by the focus shifting to Jess's awkward grief and white guilt over the whole thing.

I wish the end hadn't soiled the rest of the book for me, because really it was an interesting, uncommon story, beautifully told. It just needed a stronger finish.

I'm off to look up nonfiction accounts of Black equestrians now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Minor: Racial slurs, Grief, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kbifolck's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

The Jess/Theo romance and the final plot twist dampened my appreciation for this book. They really took me out of what the author was building and I'm not sure these developments were needed. I think the author could have kept the same trajectory and meaning of the story without those events. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and War

Minor: Alcoholism

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I loved the storyline with Jarrett - it was so richly told and sketched an era of time I don't know much about, from a perspective that is not given much air time. I found the deep diving into 1860s horse racing incredibly fascinating, and I really enjoyed the science aspect of the modern-day storyline. But basically everything else about the modern-day storyline bothered me. Brooks completely forces Jess and Theo together - they have really no chemistry, and I don't really believe they'd have a romantic connection after she had a racist reaction to seeing him standing over what she thought was his bike - and their clashes about their differing backgrounds and perspectives feel incredibly ham-handed and forced. The ending is also completely abrupt, ridiculous, and useless, and really left a bad taste in my mouth.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Classism