Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago

4 reviews

midnightstory's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

i cried at the end ngl

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Terminal illness, and Torture

wordsofclover's review against another edition

informative reflective 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

3.5

In the court of King James 1, Anne Turner is told to befriend the young Frances Howard to needs help styling herself in a court that knows how much her husband despises her and her family. Stuck in an unhappy marriage, Frances latches onto the older, wiser Anne, and the two become fierce friends, sticking to each other during grief, annulments and poverty. As Anne uses Frances's connections to help keep her family afloat, Frances uses Anne as a confidante which eventually leads to a true scandal when they are accused of murder.

I enjoyed this historical fiction book set in a court that I have yet to read a lot of books from. While I've read books focusing on the witchcraft trials during James's reign, this is one of the first I've read set within his court and with characters who lived very closely with him. It was fun to learn more about the king's 'favourites' and reading more that it appears he was most likely bisexual and took lovers of both genders.

There was a strong strand of female friendship in this book, not only between Frances and Anne but also Anne and Mistress Bowdery. How people lived in the court such as the wealthy spending money the didn't have and living in debt because that's how the King liked it to be (and therefore these people not being able to pay the lower classes for work done like Frances and Richard Weston).

This book felt well written and really well researched and I'd like to read more from Lucy Jago. I didn't know anything about this true murder scandal before, and it was fun to learn about all the things leading up to it even if it had a tragic ending. I thought the epilogue between the daughters was also really well and touching, and it was nice that a story of female friendship still ended with the blossoming of a new one.
 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

danajoy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Excrement

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

rach59r's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

The book completely captured me and my imagination. This was such as story of female power and suppression that it felt both heart retching and inspiring.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death