Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

57 reviews

nurseturkey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Murder

coelagirl's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Really really excellent book- especially the audiobook version, the prefromace Tom Sellwood gives is incredible. I'm not normally a horror enjoyer but the  multiple perspectives and historical subject matter got me. There were both scenes of incredible tension (carnivale, Blanky's escape, Franklin's  death, etc.) And knawwing knowledge that everyone would die and no matter how good any plan Crozier made was.   Very emotional. Would have been 5 stars if not for the ending- just stop reading at Hickey's final chapter; you won't get all the answers but we don't have all the answers for the real life Franklin expedition either! It's fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

The Real Life Franklin Expedition fictionalized in this book was Actually lost during its voyage in the late 1840s. This book contains the period typical misogyny and racism you might expect from victorian colonialism, as well as a book from 2007, plus men doing horrible things to survive in an inhospitable landscape they are not prepared for while being hunted by a creature behind imagination. Things get as bad you can possibly expect them to get.

ottermark's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Starts as horror, shifts to shamanism. Exceptional narrator on the audiobook version.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

gorbon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Cannibalism

dangerdog's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

bearikatherika's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Suicide, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

adrizeuza's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

2.25

This is probably my most disappointing read of the year. I had somewhat high expectations for this book, since I tend to enjoy slow paced novels and am obsessed with exploration disasters and The Terror tv series. The biggest saving grace of this audiobook was the narrator, if not for him I would have definitely DNF'd this 4 hours in. The middle 10h were a painful sludge. Around the 22h mark it finally began to pick up. I had to listen to this on 2x speed. I was expecting to feel the dread of the crew intensify as the book progressed, but the repetitiveness of the dialogues and of the descriptions completely ruined the tension building for me.
Whilst I was listening to this LONG audiobook, all I kept thinking about was how good the tv show was. How good the adaptation decisions were. And how ?? Dan Simmon's decisions in writing The Terror were in comparison. I lost count of how many times the question "... why?" popped into my head.
Geniunely cannot understand how nobody edited this down to a 400 page book. There was no reason for this to be so long. Crozier's POVs were extremely repetitive and not that interesting after a while, most other POV's did not do much to advance either the plot or our understanding of the ships' or characters' dynamis. So... why??? Even some scenes where there was supposed to be tension were completely dried out due to the dragged out descriptions the author made. Also, shout out to the cringiest sex scenes and sexual descriptions I have EVER read in my life.
Dan Simmons clearly knows how to write. And he researched the hell out of the Franklin Expedition. But my biggest grip with this book comes down to the choices he made. The reviews about women's poor treatment are real. I cannot stress enough about how poorly and superficially women are portrayed. Especially Lady Silence, and all Inuit women who show up, are so grossly objectified BY THE NARRATOR. Another choice I have a massive problem with is that with SUCH A LONG BOOK how is there not ONE POV of an Inuit character, namely Lady Silence who is one of the driving forces of the plot?? Don't even get me started on the end of her arc.

Why would she f*** and basically marry + have children with an old rude white coloniser riddled with diseases after 700 pages of not indicating that she gave a damn about him??

 
Anyway. I can't wait to rewatch the show!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Cannibalism, and Classism

black_october's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

What a horrifying take on one of the most chilling and mysterious doomed voyages in history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

renegadegrocerycart's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Finishing this book was my own journey to find the Northwest Passage.

Genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read, but I’d never recommend it to anyone because it’s objectively horrifying. I’ve had nightmares about botulism and cannibalism for weeks. This book will stay with me forever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cbug412's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is off the chain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic