Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

18 reviews

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring tense

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jourdanicus's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm finding it so hard to rate this book. 

Based on the summary and my past experience with the author, I figured this would be a resounding 5⭐ read for me. The going was really good, and I loved the writing style. Having multiple narrators made the audiobook so engaging (although the English narrator for Theo has an awful American accent... Lol, sorry).

But... I just... Felt that the ending was SUCH a flop. Maybe I'm spoiled on having happy endings from reading so much romance, I don't know...

Aside from the ending, I mainly have complex feelings on how the topic of race was handled in this book. There was so much detail and sensitivity, and yet... Not a lot of nuance? I know from the Afterword that Brooks really did her research for this book, including having Black early readers, which is good to do. But there were still some parts that felt a little forced. And then (back to my problems with the ending)

to kill Theo off, in a police shooting no less?

Like... Why? I'm not against tragedy in a story, but tragedy that seems to serve no purpose to the plot? Okay, maybe that was the point, since police violence against Black people is so senseless in real life. But I was then made uncomfortable by the focus shifting to Jess's awkward grief and white guilt over the whole thing.

I wish the end hadn't soiled the rest of the book for me, because really it was an interesting, uncommon story, beautifully told. It just needed a stronger finish.

I'm off to look up nonfiction accounts of Black equestrians now!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Minor: Racial slurs, Grief, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

chickaboogawah's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book by Geraldine Brooks. She is such a great author, and she skillfully wove the various storylines together. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Death, Gore, Excrement, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mitchelldavis1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and War

mlander's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative medium-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? No

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery

Minor: Murder

authemmie's review against another edition

emotional informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, and Murder

sierracaine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Murder

Moderate: War

Minor: Sexual assault

calamitydeeds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

menglert's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually love this kind of historical fiction/timeline switching/multiple POV parallelism, but this one didn't totally click for me. Some of the POV choices were a bit confusing, with some characters only having only one or two chapters. 

I think the core of this book was quite effective at examining themes of racism in America's past and present, so it could be worth the read for that. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Grief, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and War

melissabristol's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

The only thing I thought was less than ideal was the ending.  Sending Jess back to Australia felt like a bit of a way to avoid harder questions about where her relationship with Theo was going and the interracial dating issues that would have been raised there.  I don't deny that, sadly, Theo getting shot was a realistic outcome (see, e.g., Ahmed Aubrey, RIP), but I felt that it was in some ways throwing a HUGE issue in without really having time to discuss it.  It could have been a book of its own.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism