Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Night Ship by Jess Kidd

27 reviews

smedette's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I have not experienced this much intense dread from a book in a very long time. And it was so beautiful. 

This is historical fiction about two children, Mayken and Gil, who are connected by tragedy (and a touch of magic) while living centuries apart. Each chapter switches POV: Mayken in 1629 and Gil in 1989.

Full of secrets and monsters (human and otherwise), I could barely put it down.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

lauramcc7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Rape, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Violence

billyjepma's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.0

There’s a lot to like here—striking prose, sharp characterizations, vibes so potent you can feel them sticking on your skin—but it ultimately didn’t work for me as much as I wanted. It’s a very cruel book, for one, with more violence than I expected (that’s on me for going into this without knowing anything about it), which I can usually stomach without a problem. But the cruelty didn’t have the teeth it needed to leave a mark—it’s all blunt and brutal and lacks the intentionality I look for. What’s the violence saying? How does it frame or reframe the themes and characters? I kept looking for a moment to make everything click into place, but I never found it. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but for whatever reason, it never materialized for me. 

The dual storylines have potential, and the structure of the chapters does an admirable job of bouncing between the two timelines. Some moments had me by the throat and used the back-and-forth pacing to keep me reading longer than planned. Those moments are the exception, though, as I usually gravitated toward the 1989 story, where Kidd’s characterizations are the strongest, and the narrative has the most momentum and stakes. I kept waiting for the two stories to converge, but they didn’t, at least not in a way that satisfied me. They share themes, sure, but when the themes are this broad and, honestly, kind of basic, it left me cold. There’s enough good here that I can’t go lower than a three-star rating, but suffice it to say, this one wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Stalking, Animal death, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, and Cannibalism

denisedup's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Homophobia, Child abuse, Murder, Violence, Rape, and Torture

kirip's review

adventurous sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Child death

emily_koopmann's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide, Animal cruelty, and Bullying

ruthjenkins's review

dark emotional sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Suicide, and Animal death

alexijai98's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

More than anything, The Night Ship is just okay. The concept is interesting, and executed fairly well. Kidd handles the subject matter with grace, and having children as the protagonists brings an interesting perspective to the book. Overall an okay read, but I can’t find myself fervently recommending this to anyone, or rereading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

localpeachthief's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty

marjshopes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty