Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

13 reviews

quackquackbich's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Child death and Miscarriage

carojust's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I understand why this book is so loved and lauded. It's an enormous read that encourages you to dedicate a lot of patience and heart to its slow-moving narrative. My inner voice currently has a Texas accent -- that's how much it embeds itself in your imagination.

The book follows Texas rangers Call and Augustus as they decide to make money driving cattle to Montana, across risky terrain full of bandits, wild animals, rivers and dry plains. Larry McMurtry takes great care in fleshing out the contrasting personalities of the two main characters, as well as their moments of heroism and loss. The fight scenes, especially, were so well imagined, and make your heart race. 

What held me back was how one-dimensional the secondary characters were, particularly how Native Americans and women were portrayed. Violent or starved, a whore or a mother. And I don't think this was done in any kind of pursuasive way, it was just convenient to stereotype, and serve as ornamental means to manhood.

Nevertheless, you'll enjoy this if you're in the mood for adventurous plots, a large cast of characters, and rooting for heroes. Please consider the content warnings, too.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

annatlibrarian14's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.75

McMurtry gives such a realistic depiction of the characters in the story that they are more realized in three paragraphs than the main character of a series might be in three entire books. Even characters doesn't feel like the right term sometimes because they just feel like people. People that make bad decisions and keep making them, or contradict themselves constantly. McMurtry's writing doesn't follow arcs as much as it does the natural way of things. It only goes to serve the dreary nature of the novel, but at times it does give its little moments of cheer. 9.5/10.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

m1nature's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

harveyrichardwilson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

erynlasbelin's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Infidelity, Mental illness, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and War

verno's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative sad medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death and Rape

bluejay21's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

noonjinx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is certainly an epic. McMurtry spends 300 pages introducing his characters and then another 600 weaving their stories in and out of a 3000 mile cattle drive from Texas to Montana.

McMurtry obviously loves his subject: the book is full of western tropes but he manages to undermine the myths by showing how harsh and unforgiving frontier life was, and how survival depended on luck as much as judgement and skill.

The action is nicely paced. The characters are all deep, beautifully drawn and uniquely flawed, so you end up loving and admiring them but wanting to slap some sense into them too. The book is funny as well as exciting and sad. It’s worth reading for Gus’ hilarious monologues alone.

Some of the plot lines depend heavily on coincidence. Characters run into each other all the time and at one point McMurtry tries to explain this away by telling us there was only one road. The last few chapters are tragic and pretty bleak, but worse than that, the introspection goes on too long and gets a little boring.

I also wish the author had been a little braver in his myth busting. There’s a lot of frontier justice in this book and McMurtry can’t help justifying every lynching. I think it would have been more interesting and Captan Call had occasionally got the wrong guy.

Still a great book to read.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail