Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

12 reviews

saskia_ej's review against another edition

adventurous informative fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

dark informative 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? It's complicated

3.0

This was great to listen to because I love Neil Gaiman's writing and voice. The audiobook was narrated by him. I do not know much about norse mythology other than what I have seen in the Thor movies, but I think I liked this book more. It shows how Thor also kind of sucks as a major character in the myths, and it also explains how the gods came to be from Odin. The stories were many that I have not heard before, and are all somewhat cohesive in that they each provide context that helps with the last story of Ragnarok. This was cool to listen to, and I think more captivating to listen to rather than read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

izzykai's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A fun & easy read, great for mythology beginners, broken up into easy to digest short stories

Warning: it is pretty violent so don't read if you're not ok with that 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

riverofhorton's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

I went into this book with the assumption that it is at least somewhat accurate to the myths, and while there are elements that are, this is very much a Christianised Loki-Bad-Odin-Good portrayal of those myths.

Taken in isolation, it is as well written and mildly comical as Gaiman's other works, but within the context of it being a retelling of the Norse myths, it just missed the mark on so many points for me.

As example:

the legions of Hel are described as being "the evil dead", which to my knowledge is not only a Christian concept, but also unjust. Those dead are simply people that didn't die in battle, so while there will be "evil" among them, they're not intrinsically so. Such phrasing also implies that Odin's warriors are equivalent to the angels of Christianity, something made ironic when you realise it's possible for "evil" people to die in battle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

redheadorganist's review against another edition

adventurous informative 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

triforcefusion's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

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

3.5

I found that Neil Gaiman is a fantastic narrator. He gave such a good characterization to Thor in the way he spoke. The stories varied wildly from snappy, and fun to long and dull. There is also a barrier to entry if you are unfamiliar with Norse words. Sometimes there were so many Norse names that I couldn't remember who was who. 

I feel like Neil did a good job presenting these myths, but the quality of stories definitely fluctuated. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

yrlaevelyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

danny_fox's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was a delight from start to finish.

I don't know how accurate and true to the cannon these stories are (since this is pretty much my first introduction to Norse Mythology), but I still found it to be super enjoyable and interesting. Besides, I feel like retellings of stories from old mythologies don't need to stick that much to the "cannon", because their whole point is to be retold and see how each person will tell differently the same story.

Normally, I do my reviews by pointing out 3 things I liked and disliked about a book, but since these stories weren't made up and created by Neil, I can only judge it based on its writing style, which I had no issue with.

Instead, I'll separate it like this:

- The stories were super fun.
I found them all to be super interesting and the end even made feel quite upset. This book certainly got me into Norse Mythology.

-The writing style is simple, but in a good way.
I saw that a lot of people find Neil's writing style to be boring. Although, I understand why that is so, I find his more simplistic and not as crazy descriptive writing style to be very relaxing and easy to read. I could see everything in my head really clearly and I didn't feel bored at any point.
But I think it all just comes down to personal preference.

- The way Neil retells these stories is really fun.
The book made me laugh out loud a couple of times and it also made me feel really sad and bad for the characters. As I mentioned this before, the writing was nice enough that I could see everything clearly enough in my head, so I was really invested into this book.

- I don't think there is anything I didn't like about the book.
Again, I don't know how accurate it is to the original sources (and I honestly don't care), and writing style might not be to your liking if you are more into really detailed and descriptive styles. I think it just depends on the person. For me, I didn't have any issues with neither of these things.

Final thoughts:

If you like Norse Mythology or want to learn more about it, I'd suggest reading this book. Before getting into Norse Mythology, I only really knew stuff about Greek Mythology, which books that I read about I found to be a lot more darker and upsetting. I was expecting this book to also make me quite uncomfortable at certain parts (old times were quite brutal and disturbing), but I didn't really have any of those issues. So, the book was just really fun for me. It's definitely a solid 5 ⭐ from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

erin_curry's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail