Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Gesang der Fledermäuse

Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Gesang der Fledermäuse by Olga Tokarczuk

170 reviews

antimony's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

3.5

the first like. 80? 90?% of this book was sooooo slow and i had a lot of trouble caring about it. possibly this was in part because i have covid. but alas! but the last two chapters were REALLY good & the slowness kinda paid off. i liked janina as a narrator a lot as well, and the conversations about who we pay attention to and who we don't, about justice with regard to animals, etc. this definitely wasn't the right book for Sick Me but i think it easily could be the right book for someone else

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suzyq's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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contemporarymeepsie's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

3.0

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is set in a remote forested village near the Polish border with the Czech Republic. Mrs Duszejko lives on her own with only her few neighbours for company. It is a tight-knit community but that doesn't mean everyone gets along, and when one such neighbour accidentally chokes and dies on an animal bone, it sparks a flurry of murders in the area.
I think I missed the hook of this book. I understood the points it was making about animal cruelty and our definitions of insanity and the hypocrisy of religious hunting and so forth. I just wasn't interested in anything that was happening. I'm not a big fan of books that waffle and this was very waffley which is unfortunate as it was recommended to me by a close friend who defined it as his favourite book of the year. I found it dull and the ending was predictable. I wouldn't recommend this book but not because it was "bad" or poorly written; it was exceptionally written, but because it was dull and not my kind of book. Sorry Mike!

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laurenmvmills's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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augie_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

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agnela's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

It started really strong, then it felt like it run out of steam, but the last 50 pages, omg, it went off the rails!

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not_another_ana's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

We live in a stage of siege. If one takes a close look at each fragment of a moment, one might choke with terror.

One morning Janina, an unconventional woman more concerned with astrology and animals, is awakened by the untimely passing of her neighbor, a rude poacher she didn't much care for. While this event initially seems like a dumb accident, more and more people in town start dying in odd ways. There seems to be only one connection between them, it appears that wild animals have committed the murders. Or at least that's what Janina firmly believes even if no one else thinks the same. As the police keeps investigating Janina cannot help but be drawn to the gruesome crimes and to form her own opinions about the truth, the victims, life, and the world that surrounds her.

Pleasantly surprised by this. It's not really a crime novel or a thriller as it seems to be categorized, it's more of an exploration about different topics. It's dark but still funny and quirky at times. It deals with grief, it examines society and the corrupt systems that it's built on, it even tackles a bit of the hypocrisy of religion. There were tons of lines in this book that resonated with me and touched me deeply, I think Janina was such an interesting character with a rich and complex interior life. Her reflections on life keep this book from being too bleak or nonsensical.

I do think that it ran a bit too long, mostly because there isn't really a mystery. The crime aspect of it was the weakest part of the whole book, you could easily tell what was going on halfway through. I'm unfamiliar with William Blake's poetry and perhaps being familiar with his work would have made some of the references hit better. Still a good and different read.

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misakicherry's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

I would have done the same

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lzasne's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.5

Albeit an atmospheric read, fares as shittily as a flockful of bird droppings as a crime novel, and unfortunately, that was the intended purpose of my reading. But even more problematic than that is the constantly antagonizing, preachy tone adopted throughout the narrative and the main character's blatantly deranged psyche left uncharted. All in all, its irredeemably dichotomic and superficial understanding of ethics combined with poor attempts at quirkiness made the book a slog to get through.

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crybabybea's review against another edition

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funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

What a delightfully weird book. One of the most unique narrators I've ever read.

This is technically a thriller I guess, since it includes a murder mystery, but I'm not sure if it would appeal to general thriller enjoyers as the pacing is actually quite slow and we spend a lot of time in our main character's head than actually in the action. I loved the unreliable narrator and the fact that she's a different type of main character for a thriller read. She's not a cop, or a PI, or even anyone that matters to the investigation. She's just a "normal" (she's actually incredibly odd) person who just finds herself in the middle of a string of murders in a small Polish town. I super enjoyed how she makes you question your own judgment. It felt a bit like a noir film with her unique perspective on the world and the way she constantly narrates the most mundane, seemingly irrelevant things.

For a while we spent so long in the main character's narration that I wondered what was going to happen and where the story was going. But the ending picks up quite a bit and I found it super satisfying and fun.

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