Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

مائة عام من العزلة by د.سليمان العطار, Gabriel García Márquez

34 reviews

storyorc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad 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

4.5

I feel like the author was strongly suggesting not only to cut yourself off from your family tree, but that every society should erase its own history and try to start fresh too. But, knowing we won't, he instead paints us a picture of the build-up of the past in the Buendía house in Macondo. 

Generous helpings of surreal phenomena keep things unpredictable and enchanting despite the page length, imbuing even daily occurrences like fighting ants or embroidering with a gravity that echoes through generations. The distant, light-hearted style of narration and delightful turns of phrase are the honey that makes the medicine go down. 

The overall impression, however, is realistic enough to provoke existential dread. The Buendías do not collapse in a linear tale of corruption and lethargy. Treasures buried by one member may come in clutch for a descendant, a son might coast by on the prestige of his family name, and people are happy more often than wretched - or, if not happy, then at least getting on with their lives. 

Just when you are relaxing into a moment of joy or peace in the story, the narrator tosses in a remark about how this person is doomed or this course of action will bring ruin. Sometimes, it is misleading, but not consistently enough to discount. The ground is always shifting. The sense of hands closing around a character's neck often makes this book quite the page-turner, even when the neck belongs to a very (VERY) flawed person. In uncanny mimicry of actual family, the story cultivates empathy and even loyalty for awful characters simply by showing, from birth and before, why and how they came to be.

There's also something very uncomfortable yet relatable about how this huge, sprawling family who live and die on top of each other in this house perpetually stumble into self-absorption and fail to understand one another. They get close, then drift or fall short again, then try again. Very human.

Life in Macondo is relentless and defies not only narrative catharsis but even cause and effect. The Buendía family history is one that refuses to be reduced to a simple warning against modernity or selfishness to read and pat yourself on the back and then forget. It sticks in the throat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty

moka_b's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Beautiful writing and story telling. So much incest and pedophilia with a splash of sexual assault and the occasional bestiality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty

cosmicpasta's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Incest, Dementia, and Death of parent

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

Minor: Antisemitism

kjf524's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jsuispoesie's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.25

When I was 15 y.o. - after bein  traumatised by the description of an abort in the first part of the narration - I decided I woul  never read this book.  Here I am, ten years later, after finishing this terribly long book, with the unpleasant sensation that this is gonna be one of the best reading of the year. Let's be clear, I absolutely despise the scene of rape and child abuse that the narrator throws in the stories like nothing. There are too many characters, and after a while I started to hate everyone because the characters I loved were no longer the center of the story. I'm not sure I completely understood all the war part, but I guess it's kinda the point of it. After all it really seemed like a spent a hundred years reading this, but at the end of the day I could not - not - like these characters, only because I saw them from the beginning of their life to their end. I don't give it 5 stars for the reasons I enumerated, but gosh I hate the fact that I liked this book!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Abortion, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Rape, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Genocide

miayukino's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Fatphobia, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

michaelion's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

The most confusing part of this book is the names. But! It's clear that was intentional. Everything else? Pretty lovely. (I don't mean that literally for every aspect. Don't cancel me.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Dementia, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Homophobia, Blood, Vomit, and Abandonment

rousseure's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

this book has amazing commentary and makes great points but it was boring and read like a string of facts from a very detached narrator

more like 100 years of incest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

eliss02's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

I've read this for an university exam, I despised it so much it made me sick a few times but I constantly think about it. Despite me disliking this book it was one of those I've printed on my mind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Infidelity

gabyyinz's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail