Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

49 reviews

faithtrustpixiedust's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, Violence, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

garinatorsch55's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed learning more of the Norse stories reading this book, but I would have liked to see a more creatively written approach to these stories.  Gaiman notes at the beginning that he has written this book to be as close as possible to the research he had done of Norse Mythology, but also taking some slight creative liberties.  I would have liked him to lean into those creative liberties further, more in the sense of creating suspense, engrossing the reader to connect with the gods in a more humanistic, "mortal" approach.  Not to necessary change the mythos, but grasp the reader to almost feel like they were there.  It seems like Gaiman was a bit indecisive in this approach.  I am still interested to learn more about this mythos, similar to how I strive to learn the extent of the Middle-Earth universe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, and Murder

redhothabanero's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative 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

4.5

I listened to the audiobook and I can't recommend that enough. Narration was great and the stories were very engaging and funny at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Excrement

halaagmod's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

the_reading_wren's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative fast-paced

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

3.75

I haven’t read the book so can’t say how accurate the radio show is as an adaptation, but it is really well produced. I didn’t know much about Norse mythology before and this gave a great overview. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

readsbymoonlight's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, and Murder

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

nicholasbobbitt1997's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Fantastic rendering of the Norse myths. Eminently readable, broke me out of a months-long reading slump. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Excrement

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