Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

4 reviews

maddummel's review against another edition

dark 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? No

2.25

Zupełnie czegoś innego spodziewałam się po tej książce. 85% to opisy brutalnego ludobójstwa i wojny, które do niczego nie prowadzą. Niestety parę tych rozdziałów, które bardziej skupiały się na życiu głównego bohatera nie były na tyle dobre, żeby książkę uratować. A szkoda, bo koncept generalnie nie był zły.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Ableism, Slavery, Torture, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bestknownfor's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

Has a lyrical almost slice-of-life feel to it. Thomas' voice comes through strongly, and the contrast between the everyday mundane and acts of horrific violence all comes together well. The exploration of Thomas' gender is thoughtful and well-done. 

Don't read this expecting a twisty love story - Thomas and John's relationship is very sweet but ultimately not a main focus. It's a portrait of a collection of people whose lives intertwine over years, and it does that very well indeed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Racial slurs, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

marxxx's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

most of this book left me sitting with a weird discomfort—the narrator and his partner are both complicit in a lot of really heinous things, and violence against Black and Indigenous people abounds. but I found it informative, and found the discomfort to be something worth examining, and the end of the book made me cry. 

The writing style takes some getting used but it adds something very unique and personal to the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

macaronis_telegraph's review against another edition

slow-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? No

1.0

Format of the book is frustrating - While Barry does succeed at crafting a distinct voice for his main character, it also for some reason meant that every paragraph was multiple pages long, creating a constant wall of text on every page, allowing for an uninviting read. 

Author also fails to address in any light the horrendous parts of the past he writes about. He writes in detail his characters partaking in the repeated slaughter of Native Americans both before and after the civil war, but because the characters partaking in the murder are gay and rescue one little girl, everything is okay right? I think not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War