Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Les Piliers de la Terre by Ken Follett

25 reviews

olivia_russell's review against another edition

adventurous informative sad tense slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and Torture

sonygaystation's review against another edition

So many parts of it are boring and when they’re not boring they’re exceedingly graphic. Sex scenes are wholly unnecessary and always written with the male gaze so the woman’s perspective is so unrealistic. I can’t deal with the graphic rape, assault, and abuse; the graphic descriptions of stoning cats; the unrealistic and boring “love” between Tom and Ellen; and the weirdo random anti-semitism sprinkled here and there throughout. I LOVE fantasy but I don’t understand how people can stomach this book and find it not only read-able but actively enjoyable. Y’all have suspect taste

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Sexual harassment, War, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Classism, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Torture

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Rape, and Antisemitism

thesadhen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Gore

elisabethshanahan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty and Fire/Fire injury

cmankus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Animal cruelty

maddyisreading23's review against another edition

4.5

!!! notice about the contents: rape, violence, animal abuse, domestic violence, sexism, bullying.

I decided to start the new year with a not so light reading and I don’t regret it.. I can’t describe the plot well because there are so many things going on, but I think I can say that it revolves around the construction of a cathedral in medieval England...but it is also a story of love, violence, revenge, politics, wars and battles, betrayal, hope, loss and other things.

Honestly I really liked this book, so I’ll start with the things I liked the most.
1. Each character was developed quite deeply and each chapter or section was narrated from the perspective of a different character. 
2. I really liked that although there are many different stories of many different people who have many different relationships with each other, each story comes to an "end" and has an explanation.
3. Despite the 1000 pages, the book was quite easy to read (well, most sometimes) because something always happened... you go from descriptive parts to very dynamic situations and dialogues. 
4. The length of the book allowed me to empathize with each character and it is something that I really enjoyed... Follet left nothing to chance.

In general I found it a very pleasant read.

Now let’s start with the things I didn’t like:
<SPOILER ALERT> 
1. I didn’t like (and I didn’t even really understand) the scene where Tom, on the same day that his wife died (giving birth to his child, by the way) dreams of having sex with an angel who, apparently, is Ellen, a woman with whom he had a 15 min conversation the same day. And I found it even stranger that she said things like, "I’ve loved you since I’ve seen you," like... you literally had ONE conversation with him. I think this part could have been written in a more normal and less ridiculous way... I think the author needed to find a fast way to get to Ellen and Toms love story.
2. Description of rape: scenes of rape weren't descripted that well...it was all from the rapist's perspective, which was William most of times, and I think the author didn't give these events the importance they would have deserved. 
Some of you may be asking: but the story isn't about this, a scene of rape isn't so important for this plot, INSTEAD I think it's essential. 
Obviusly, the most "important" of this kind of scenes is when William rapes Aliena. The act of raping is decribed in such a fast and insignificant way and it doesn't give a f about the fact that the rape is only the point of the iceberg...I mean, we read about Aliena and Williams story before the abuse, but the scene is described in such a dry way...
Also, Aliena starts talking only after the abuse and I wouldn't mind if she had talked about the rape...but she doesn't, or better, the author doesn't. This isolates the rape part even more. 
<END OF SPOILERS>
3. I understand that all the plot revolves around the construction of a cathedral, but I think some descriptive parts could have been avoided, because sometimes it was difficult not to skip those descriptive parts. 
In point 3 of things I liked about this book I wrote that there was balance, and this comment is refering only to specific little parts that in a 1000 pages book can make a difference. 

To sum up, I would recommend this book, but it's violent and cruel some times and I think sensitive people should stay in alert especially if you are suscetible to rape/sexual abuse because I think sometimes it has been described in a disturbing way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Blood, Hate crime, Murder, Sexual violence, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Animal death

sapphirelain's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Blood, Infidelity, Cursing, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Violence, War, Gore, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

staceyh13's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I disliked this book, I was looking for something along the lines of C J Sansom's Shardlake series, which I adore, but this fell very short of that standard. The characters are very poorly presented. The bad guys were very bad and that was it, and the good guys were in the main pretty dislikeable.

Spoiler

Tom having sex with a stranger mere hours after his wife dies horrifically in childbirth?! What?! Are we supposed to root for him after that?!

Also far too many graphic rape and animal abuse scenes, very uncomfortable to read and unnecessary.

Spoiler

we get it, Ken, William is evil!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Rape, Violence, and Animal cruelty

charitie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Rape, Abandonment, and War

melina_30's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts