Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

26 reviews

bambiann's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Neil Gaiman did a fantastic job! Every story was written well and easy to understand. Neil had captured my full attention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Murder

valpuri's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Grief, and Pregnancy

elderwoodreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.75

I loved this retelling of Norse Mythology. The beginning was a bit slow and dense for me but it picked up very quickly, and I can't believe how fast I devoured it! Neil Gaiman's narration definitely made it ten times more enjoyable than if I had read it as a text. Pleaae read the content warnings before reading/listening if you are sensitive to descriptions of torture and gore, they are behind the spoiler tag.

CW: eye trauma, intestines/entrail, genital mutilation/torture, graphic descriptions of death

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

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

3.75

I'm not super familiar with Norse mythology in general so I picked this up to learn a bit more about it. The storytelling definitely was interesting and kept my attention for the most part. Neil's narration of the audiobook was very well done!! Selfishly I wanted at least 1 story about the Valkyries, and this focused more on the 'major players' in Norse mythology (Odin, Thor, Loki). From what I understand this is a more updated and accessible version of these myths, so worth a read if you're interested in this subject.

Totally did reinforce that Loki is my favorite tho ...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Murder

nafisa_tabassum's review

adventurous funny hopeful informative fast-paced

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

4.75

It's really good! There's really not much more to say.

Neil Gaiman skilfully walks us through norse mythology in a way both unflinching and approachable. I enjoyed myself and learned about myths along the way. Very good read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Slavery

charliekjg86's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Blood, Excrement, and Alcohol

yrlaevelyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

danny_fox's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was a delight from start to finish.

I don't know how accurate and true to the cannon these stories are (since this is pretty much my first introduction to Norse Mythology), but I still found it to be super enjoyable and interesting. Besides, I feel like retellings of stories from old mythologies don't need to stick that much to the "cannon", because their whole point is to be retold and see how each person will tell differently the same story.

Normally, I do my reviews by pointing out 3 things I liked and disliked about a book, but since these stories weren't made up and created by Neil, I can only judge it based on its writing style, which I had no issue with.

Instead, I'll separate it like this:

- The stories were super fun.
I found them all to be super interesting and the end even made feel quite upset. This book certainly got me into Norse Mythology.

-The writing style is simple, but in a good way.
I saw that a lot of people find Neil's writing style to be boring. Although, I understand why that is so, I find his more simplistic and not as crazy descriptive writing style to be very relaxing and easy to read. I could see everything in my head really clearly and I didn't feel bored at any point.
But I think it all just comes down to personal preference.

- The way Neil retells these stories is really fun.
The book made me laugh out loud a couple of times and it also made me feel really sad and bad for the characters. As I mentioned this before, the writing was nice enough that I could see everything clearly enough in my head, so I was really invested into this book.

- I don't think there is anything I didn't like about the book.
Again, I don't know how accurate it is to the original sources (and I honestly don't care), and writing style might not be to your liking if you are more into really detailed and descriptive styles. I think it just depends on the person. For me, I didn't have any issues with neither of these things.

Final thoughts:

If you like Norse Mythology or want to learn more about it, I'd suggest reading this book. Before getting into Norse Mythology, I only really knew stuff about Greek Mythology, which books that I read about I found to be a lot more darker and upsetting. I was expecting this book to also make me quite uncomfortable at certain parts (old times were quite brutal and disturbing), but I didn't really have any of those issues. So, the book was just really fun for me. It's definitely a solid 5 ⭐ from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

diana_raquel's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.0

"He said nothing: seldom do those who are silent make mistakes."

Published in 2017, Norse Mythology retells 15 stories from Norse mythology, including the most famous stories like the theft of Thor's hammer and the binding of Fenrir.  From the outset, it's clear that Gaiman loves Norse mythology since these are well-written stories. I will say that I don't know a lot about Norse mythology, so I don't know if the stories are "accurate", but they are very well-written. 

Overall, I really liked these stories (my favorite was Freya's Unusual Wedding - there's some content that may be seen as problematic but I certainly have seen worse) but I really liked the structure of the book. Although these are short stories (with only the characters as the connection link), the way they are organized creates a feeling of continuity that may resemble the continuous narrative of a book. That's something that I don't see a lot with this type of book. 

Really liked! A read that I would recommend to fantasy lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual content