Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Dune by Frank Herbert

160 reviews

suzanne906's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Child death, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Grief

jeffpowell's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I watched the most recent Dune movies (1-2) before reading the book. I’m of the opinion that it’s worth consuming both the movies and the book. The book really shines when it comes to revealing all the inner thoughts of the characters as the plot beats are hit; I loved learning about all the little things that the protagonists noticed—things that are really hard to replicate in the screen. I think the movies shine by filling in the gaps of the moments of grandeur in the plot. I also appreciated some of the rearranging of the plot that they did, particularly the choice of omitting some of the characters mentioned in the book. Now, my opinion may change, depending on if the removed characters are necessary for plot points in later books (which I haven’t read as of this review)—we’ll see!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Sexual content

wellreadandhalfdead's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child death and Slavery

yzvt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking

jester_k's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

2.5

I wanted to like this mainly because my Dad loved it when he read it as a teen. But the story was so slow-moving that it didn't grip me and I didn't find the glossary til right at the end so a lot of things went way over my head. The Harkonnens are depicted as disgustingly evil but the fact they have slaves and enjoy murder and rape is put on a level with the fact that the Baron is... just fat. It's constantly focused on to show how gross he is and I struggled to enjoy the rest of the book with this deep-seated fatphobia. 

Also, Paul starts the book being kind and compassionate and ends up becoming an awful tyrant so I stopped being able to root for him at all. I'm sure that's part of the point but it didn't leave me with any characters to enjoy the perspective of. Then he won and it was mostly just depressing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Sexism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Grief

jonssweater's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

ambert's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Drug use, Racism, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Excrement

sea_tea_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense

3.0

The worldbuilding was decent, I can say that much. Otherwise, I felt this was far longer than necessary with too many characters to keep track of. I also found it strange that the author did not explain any backstory for the reader; rather, the story appears to start in the middle. 

I would have preferred more information about the technology and engineering of these future civilizations. How did Earthlings go from landing on the moon to

intergalactic eugenics and war

? Where was the science in this science fiction?

A lot of heavy themes in this book club pick:

religion, addiction, cults, war, politics, misogyny, eugenics, sexual harassment

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Relevant quote:

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.”

Frank Herbert, Dune (Dune, #1), 1965

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Pedophilia and Death of parent

Minor: Child death and Incest

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Slavery, Blood, and Alcohol

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Well, if that isn't the spiciest book I've ever read.

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

All jokes aside, I wasn't expecting to cry while reading this book but dang, it got me in my feels.  I was familiar enough with the plot due to seeing so many versions of it, including the most recent adaption, and while the adaptions are quite faithful, there was nuance that was omitted and I appreciated the journey of reading this to find those little bits.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism