Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

16 reviews

lilcoppertop's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Ableism and Homophobia

kellymacbrown's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

While there were aspects of this book that I absolutely adored, overall this book was just okay. 

When I got this from the bookstore it was shelved in fantasy and the blurb on the back did not prepare me for the actual contents (which are more horror leaning). 

I’m okay with some dark elements and some horror. However, I really disliked the parts that alluded to sexual relations between adults and children. That’s a hard nope for me. 

This book addresses how grief/trauma transforms a child into an adult too quickly, stealing something from them in the process. 

The ending was beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Pedophilia and Death of parent

sam_uel_c's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia and Pedophilia

swalk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

A quintessentially English, gothic fairy tale; but if you are expecting a lighthearted fable, this is certainly not it. 

 

Set in 1939 during the war, David is just a 12 year-old boy, his mother is sadly dying. The terrible stress and trauma of this has lead to him trying to prevent her death, by performing tasks in a very obsessive manner and becoming withdrawn. After some time David begins to collapse when he is stressed or angry and his father takes him to see a doctor about it. As his mind spirals David begins hearing the words inside of books come to life, until one day he is consumed by another world entirely; A world filled with fairytale horrors, battles of good and evil, wolves, harpies, knights and a sinister crooked man.
 
 This tale has truly magical world building and a fantastic mix of malevolent and virtuous characters, I loved the the humour of the dwarves and how the story was woven with messages of overcoming grief and a sense of self discovery and growth. Honestly I absolutely adored this book and I even shed a few tears towards the end. Truly excellent.

Nick Rawlingson was an amazing narrator, his character voicing was excellent and really made the audiobook immersive. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Homophobia, Blood, and War

Minor: Torture and Death of parent

zsabella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

this is a deceptively simple coming of age story of a young boy transported into a dark, fantasy world. the story carries the same energy and atmospheric quality of the movie pan’s labyrinth (2006) by guillermo del toro but with a less fascistic, war-torn angle. at first I was pretty enchanted by the fairytale-like writing until the crooked man was introduced and I could literally feel my skin trying to crawl off my body. I liked the adult retellings of classic fairytales and fables, along with reading a few others that I had never come across before. I also really enjoyed the woodsman and roland characters who served david as interesting companions! such a solid read for any fantasy fan that needs a stand-alone novel and not an entire series to win them over.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Death, Pedophilia, and War

child abduction

lisas_bookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Gore, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Sexual harassment

I'm not used to reading dark stories, so to me this was very VERY DARK. Please check all the warnings before reading this book.

neni's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the imagery and the writing style. The fairy tale vibes gone darker were quite well done. I didn't particularly care about the main character but the plot itself followed a path that made sense for a "fairy tale" type story, and these stories normally don't have main characters that are that complex and well developed anyways.
 I really liked how dark the fairy tale retellings were and it was nice to see the main character's relationships with other people develop as he "grew up". The depiction of grief and overall of negative emotions in the eyes of the main character was also fascinating. 
Overall a cool book, a great choice if you're into fairy tales and spooky stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Homophobia

syaluo's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty

alliallialli's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child death