Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm

12 reviews

skyfall's review against another edition

This book was way too dark for children’s fairytales. Not a huge fan of short stories that don’t get you anywhere and attempt to teach you a lesson, but don’t actually. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fatphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

flamesocks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

linnylionheart's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Terminal illness and Blood

peachmoni's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Death, and Murder

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted reflective 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? It's complicated

3.25

As this is a complete collection of fairy tales, it's a very mixed bag. Some of them are witty and funny, and others incredibly repetitive and confusing. And often similar tales follow each other, so basically it's the same story twice. 

A modern reader can pick up elements that would nowadays be considered problematic: women are treated as prizes, the ugly and overweight are often presented as evil, and there is some antisemitism as well. 

About 15 % of these stories are actually good, 35 % fulfil the need for nostalgia for those who grew up listening to these stories. And the rest… Well, frankly I could have done without. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

stacylaughs's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Animal death, Child abuse, and Death

apalershadeofwhite's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative medium-paced

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

3.0

This collection as a whole was pretty middle-of-the-road. There were some tales I really enjoyed, some I didn't like at all, and some that weren't bad but were pretty forgettable. It was especially a bit difficult to want to read in the middle, where a lot of the tales were pretty repetitive, but it did pick up a little towards the end. 

So many of the tales in this collection were basically the same story but wrapped in a different package! There was an insane amount of repetition with the content within the tales and most often had the same ending, just with differently named characters and a different locale. It made the reading process a bit monotonous.

Don't get me wrong, though, there was still some good writing in here! They just felt a bit like finding a pearl in the sea haha. I specifically liked the focus on symbolism and metaphors as I'm a sucker for these in any narrative I read. Although, there were a lot of grim (ha) inclusions in the tales that sometimes were a bit odd. There was, on the other hand, quite a few really funny bits within this collection. I'm unsure if they were all intentional, but they made me laugh either way so it's a plus.

There were, however, massive racist undertones. The tales often talked of women being "black and ugly as sin" but other being "white and beautiful" which was awful to read, to be honest. And I felt like all of the messages to girls in these tales were to just sit and be pretty.

I found that the overarching morals throughout the tales were: honesty versus deceit, selfishness versus compassion, jealously, and equality and equity.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

purplehulk713's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Jacob and Wilhelm certainly loved their tales of horror. I was rather relieved to be done, honestly, because even though I enjoyed it, it felt very repetitive with many similar plots and tropes. But the sinister and at times evil nature of the tales is spooky and tantalizing. Classic and familiar, this was quite enjoyable, but often so in small doses as one might grow tired of similar tales. But it is a cultural staple, and it gives so much more significance to these stories’ successors. It’s something everyone should read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

chloelj27's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

marissasa's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted

2.5

I originally planned to read over 101 days, reading one short story a night before bed, but ofc that didn't happen and I instead would read a bunch at once and forget for weeks. In the end I finished in 103 days, and ranked every story from 1-5 stars coming to a final average of 2.5 stars. Many stories were short, repetitive, or basically the same as other stories with different magical objects or different settings so most of those got ranked lowly. There were 5 favorites that I gave 5 stars, being "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids", "The Bremen Town-Musicians", "Little Snow White", "The Dog and the Sparrow", and "Clever Gretel". Overall I'm glad I read these classic fairy tales and it definitely gave me more insight into the notoriously dark origin of the well-known adaptations in media today, as the evil characters in the stories would often perish either cruel deaths or injuries and banishment. I can also see how the standout stories that weren't repetitive or re-skinned copies of the others were the ones that got reimagined as Disney movies or as their own children's books. Some of the stories, especially those mentioning religion or religious people, felt preachy, but I get the purpose of the fairy tales was to entertain and warn children about the consequences of behaving badly. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism