Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

7 reviews

thursdd4y's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

hocuscrocus's review

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I hadn't read this book for over a decade before picking it up again. Sadly, I was unpleasantly surprised by what I found.
Where Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs hit with beautiful, bleak poignancy, Hannibal falls entirely flat.
I know I'm being harsh. In part, it's because I genuinely love this series and find the basic plot of Hannibal to be uniquely beautiful. I still feel that way, but the plot itself is absolutely suffocated by layers of strange racism and cheap shock value. I'm no wilting flower; I enjoy gore and shocking elements. However, the details in this book shift between out-of-touch at best and needlessly disgusting at worst.
I doubt I'll ever read this again, which is a shame because there are some gems hidden among all of the awful bits.
Thomas Harris, what the fuck?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Incest, Racial slurs, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Racism, Ableism, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cannibalism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Rape, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Drug use, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

alpinkpaca's review

dark mysterious slow-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? No

4.25

Everytime I read Thomas Harris' books I always forget it's horror and not a cute romance. This one reminded me more than I expected. Even if it was really slow at the beginning it was worth to read it in the end! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Torture, Toxic friendship, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

frmeden's review

slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, and Torture

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Cannibalism, Cursing, Gun violence, Incest, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Stalking, Transphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pedophilia, and Rape

Minor: Infertility

danimacuk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Animal death, Death, Torture, Chronic illness, Medical content, Violence, Murder, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Sexism, Gun violence, Bullying, Cursing, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Incest, Alcohol, Abandonment, Pedophilia, and War

roxiw's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Medical content, Rape, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Infertility and Racism

caidyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

I find that this book is my favorite out of all the Hannibal Lecter series. It focused more on Hannibal, which I really enjoyed because he is, quite honestly, the most fascinating character that I've read in all my years. I did see the movie first but I couldn't follow it. I could only follow the book because of how spelled out they were for me to follow and understand. The book was an easy read, nothing too challenging to it, but one that I really enjoyed because of the focus done on my favorite character in this series.

I only had two problems with the book. The first being how the tense switched so often; sometimes in the beginning of the chapter it would be present tense and in the end or middle it would suddenly be past. Being a writer myself, mainly sticking to private works that I don't share, it bothered me, especially since I can stay to one tense and a man who's been published multiple times and his books are very well known can't. The second problem was with the details of minor characters, such as Margot, that I didn't need or care about. Sure, hearing about how much she wanted a child with Judy was sweet but wasn't that interesting or needed. The motivation for her killing Mason could have simply been because she had hated him, but that's my own opinion.

My favorite part of the book was seeing the development in Clarice and Hannibal's relationship. Ever since they had been introduced together and Hannibal had taken a special liking to her, I had hoped that they would wind up together either as a couple in a friendship or in romance. Yes, I do know that Hannibal had her drugged but he did reach her and understand her more than even she had until the end when she seemed to have become herself but in a new way that was far more elegant. The ending of the book was very good, but, again, the part about Barney was unneeded for me. Krendler's ending was really symbolic; Clarice ate her problem, clearing it away, almost turning into Hannibal in doing so because of the sudden change in elegance as her last problem, that being Krendler, was gone.

All in all a very good book that I would recommend to people looking for an interesting read that you don't want to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape