Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Das Buch Anderswo by China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

12 reviews

kelseyr713's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

Absolutely loved this. The writing style drew me in, and I loved that it takes the concept of BRZRKR and expands upon it with care and even deeper thought. The flashback chapters that show the reader snippets of B’s vast life were my favorites, and I could read so many of those vignettes. There’s also quite a bit of (pitch-dark) humor.

I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone though. You definitely need to be patient, and the density of the language means you need to be willing to look words up. This isn’t a book you can breeze through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

laurenreads97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, and War

gizelleinak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

It was interesting at times and slow at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Torture, and Murder

hkajer's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Miscarriage

Minor: Cannibalism, Car accident, and Death of parent

sarahb919's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Very well written but didn’t really enjoy it. Couldn’t become invested in any of the characters. The one character I was really curious about, Vayn, barely featured. And then, in the end, everything was just a big misunderstanding, which felt unsatisfying and anticlimactic. The beginning, with its jumping around in the timeline, was difficult to understand. It took several chapters before I could get my footing and understand what was going on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

stephe's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.0

This is exactly what you want to get from a Keanu-China collab based on a graphic novel. Fun, brutal, brooding, out there, pretty well-written, and just generally cool. I enjoyed this much more than the comic books.

Also, don’t be dismayed by the first few pages—the writing gets much better!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

This is a book about an 80,000-year-old immortal John Wick. So a lot of death and violence.

ixris's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

Those sure were some words put in an order. 

I love china mieville but the plot did not really show up until the last 100 pages. A thriller writer my guy is not. 

Kind of a bear for me personally to get thru but always in love w mievilles EXTREMELY SPECIFIC diction omg. Some passages were absolutely killer. 

I longed for a closer narrative voice in the third person sections to feel like these characters were people with hopes and goals. Loved all the first and second person sections. Art happened there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Car accident

lunarstrudel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I'm not sure what I just read honestly. I read the comics and enjoyed them, I've read a little bit of China Mieville and enjoyed that. If there wasn't such a long wait at the library I probably would have dnfed this at 15-20%, but I didn't want to go through the loooong hold line again so my curiousity about it won out. Anyways, I finished it and I think I followed most of the plot but I'm still not really sure wtf this book is trying to say. It was very confusing and sometimes felt deliberately so. I had a hard time listening to some of the more gorey scenes and kinda skimmed them; that may have hindered me more than I thought. Idk. 

Audiobook version was good, I could speed up to 1.5, sometimes 1.75 depending on the narrator.  Just an FYI for fellow speed freaks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Suicide attempt

lucywood227's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, and Medical trauma

laurareads87's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

 3.5, rounding up. This is one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, and seeing + reading the interviews with Reeves & Miéville together has only added to my excitement (their dynamic is great – do check out an interview if you’re a fan of either of them, whether you plan to read this or not). 

The Book of Elsewhere follows Unute, also known as B., an 80,000 year old man who cannot die (or, perhaps, who can die repeatedly while returning with memories perfectly intact). Throughout his existence, he has been subject to curiosity that has manifested in cults, underground societies, and, of course, experimentation to attempt to replicate his longevity. The main timeline of this novel is contemporary and focused on a special unit dedicated to researching Unute with the goal of creating super-resilient soldiers (of course), while some chapters jump back to different points in Unute’s life. 

I feel like it’s important to note that I read this having read almost all of the fiction China Miéville has published, but with very very little familiarity with Reeves’ comic series which introduces this book’s main character. I can see how a negative review seems to be the result for some readers coming from the opposite direction: Miéville definitely has his own style, and not having any familiarity with that I think would really skew expectations on what this book would be like. A lot of the things that reviews are mentioning as ‘negatives’ – big vocabulary, somewhat experimental style/format, a non-linear structure – are to be expected with Miéville’s work. For me, these are strengths. I would not say that this book is Miéville’s best by any stretch – and some of his other novels are favourites for me – but I do think that fans of his work will enjoy it. Just don’t expect for everything to be clear and comprehensible from page one. 

Content warnings: violence, gun violence, blood, gore, body horror, death, murder, torture, confinement, animal death, animal cruelty (experimentation), war, suicide / suicide attempt (very graphic and on-page) 

Thank you to the authors and to Penguin Random House Canada for an e-ARC in exchange for a review. Note: for formatting reasons, I ended up buying a hardcover to read instead, so my review is based on the final published version. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Minor: War