Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

20 reviews

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Oh my gosh! THIS BOOK! I'm so happy I read it! It made me feel happy and yet there was a time when my eyes burned due to the tears in my eyes. I loved all our main characters! EVERY. SINGLE. ONE! I was so unwell after I finished it. Heartbroken even. I love this book so much! 🥰😥

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, and Child abuse

This book does tackle themes of discrimination and prejudice. And how rhetoric like that can shape the individuals as well as the society affected by it.

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark 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? No

Read For:

Fantasy

Slow Burn

Found Family

Idiots in Love

Happy Ending

Think Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibes but kinda queer.  I just felt kinda neutral about it.  The humor was okay, the characters were okay, and the setting was kinda meh.  I just felt like I had to force myself to keep reading and if I didn’t already own the book I would have stopped.  Also, I thought there would be more queer rep to be honest so that was kinda disappointing.  Not to mention the fatphobia.

I wasn’t going to read this given the reviews I’ve been seeing recently, however, I already own the first two books so I figured I’d see if it was as bad as some of the reviews were saying.  And honestly, I just didn’t understand the hype about it.  Even not knowing what the book was based on it was barely a 3-star rating for me, it just fell flat to me.

However, learning that this was based on the Sixties Scoop and how the author decided to turn what was a cruel and tragic piece of history he read about on Wikipedia about how the Canadian government removed a bunch of indigenous children from their literal homes and away from their family only to be adopted to white, middle-class families and he then took that information and basically turned it into a happy little fantasy where the kids live not in an “orphanage” but a “home” like, dude, why?

This kind of thing is still something native people are dealing with and as a white person, it should not be something you’re involved in like this.  In America the Supreme Court literally is going to be voting soon on overturning ICWA so states can regain control to remove Native children from their homes and families, this isn’t just some fantasy.  This story could have been written way better and in a way that did romanticize trauma and make light of a literal genocide.

I just wouldn’t recommend this one.  There are some links on where I got my information from if you’re interested along with two reviews I think do a better job of explaining this than I did.

Links:

Source: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617930246/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=bookmark-ITBC&xid=0efbabda

Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop

Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4032060130

Another Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3601407534

Rep: Achillean, Queer MC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Racism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death of parent, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Classism, Grief, Homophobia, and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Cannibalism, Murder, Death, Animal death, and Blood

caitlinjadams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

What a lovely, lovely book about humanity. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Confinement, Racism, Religious bigotry, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Animal cruelty

A real life plane crash is discussed in one scene. There are a few uncomfortable jokes made about child characters.
Not sure how to tag it, but the fact that the fantasy oppression narrative was partially inspired by the Sixties Scoop is very much something to be aware of.

annieisawesome's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

I loved this book. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I picked it up because I saw that it was a very popular book— for good reason! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Confinement

amberrenfrey's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Body horror, Homophobia, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

isaaah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Self harm

faranae's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Mental illness

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, and Fatphobia

The book handles a wide range of potentially difficult topics with the lightest and gentlest of touches, so I think most of them will not pose a problem. However, Lucy's a bit morbid and has "spiders in his brain", and these elements recur frequently. There is a past confinement incident that is described in some detail towards the end of the book, but it is softened by

Spoiler

knowing the person it happened to has already mostly healed from that trauma.

hln's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Xenophobia

Minor: Child abuse and Animal cruelty

paperbackprincess19's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Bullying and Child abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty