Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

26 reviews

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

It's a beautiful book, largely about the author's grief around loosing her father, closely followed by a retelling of the biography of a horrible, flawed man and his hawk from the past. The passages about her hawk are so real you feel she's preening her feathers in front of you but these are third to the aforementioned.

Perhaps I'd built this book up too much in my head. After all, it's on a subject I find so interesting and I've had it on my shelf a good four years before it was read. It was slow and I found myself disappointed that the book neatly finished, only to start yet ANOTHER chapter. I wouldn't read it again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Depression, antidepressants, hunting, hunting of animals, guns, misogyny

caramiaculpa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Read this for Defector Reads a Book and was not disappointed. Yes, it’s a mix of biography, memoir, and treatise on grief. Beautifully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Outing, Colonisation, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.75

This book is like a gut punch—grief is a funny little thing. It works in ways that are hard to predict or identify. And this book puts that in the most beautiful phrasing possible. The hawking stuff kinda grossed me out but the way that Macdonald interwove t.h. white’s experiences was really compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia

bluejay21's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

jes312's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

I loved the book "My Side of the Mountain" growing up, so I loved reading about the actual training of a hawk. I love Mabel and the author's descriptions of her hunting, playing, and reacting to the world. I wasn't as intrigued by the inclusion of T. H. White as a reoccurring facet of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent

drone232's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

This is about a man and woman trying to find themselves in two different time periods. It is about the author, Helen, whose father just died, and she is trying to distract herself from the pain by buying a hawk to train. She is already experienced in raising birds, but managing a hawk proves quite challenging, especially for someone emotionally insecure like her. She is, at the same time, entranced by the life story of author T.H. White a generation past who also tried to raise a hawk, and had no idea what he was doing. He wanted to find manhood and wildness in the act, but only proves how naive he is. This is a deep and compelling book about human nature with occasional tidbits about birds. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia

zoinkie's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

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

wordswithjustine's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

As a fan of The Once and Future King and nature writing and as someone whose dad died less than 2 months ago, this was the right book at the right time for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent

As a bit of a T.H. White fan because of The Once and Future King, I was disturbed to learn many challenging things about him that I never knew before. It was interesting, but not always in a good way for me.

teaandpetrichor's review against another edition

Stopped purely because I can't do hunting stuff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Animal cruelty

hfleur's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and War