Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

39 reviews

toffishay's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the world more than the characters that we followed through it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, and Violence

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

ashbcgc's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Child death

narkohund's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective sad medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

butterfly_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Death

pelledorso's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-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: Death

Moderate: Violence, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Torture

bluejayreads's review

Everything in this review is based on a sample size of the three Neil Gaiman books I’ve actually read (this one, American Gods, and Anansi Boys), but discounting American Gods as an outlier since it was, you know, actually enjoyable. So feel free to take this whole review with a grain of salt. 

Now that that’s said – I hope Neil Gaiman is okay. 

Excepting American Gods, the two books of his I’ve read feature protagonists who are spineless, vaguely depressed young men with mediocre-to-horrible corporate jobs, dating strong-willed, domineering, beautiful women whom they let walk all over them. In this book, Richard made his first independent choice when he defied his girlfriend to help a girl bleeding in the street, and even though it was only about 15% of the way into the book I was SO READY for her to go. 

I think Richard was the reason I didn’t end up finishing this one. I could not bring myself to care about him. There were some vaguely interesting things happening around him – a very weird homeless girl named Door, people who seem to be able to talk to rats, sewer tunnels going places sewer tunnels could not logically go – but Richard himself was so boring. He didn’t even have enough personality to actively hate – the best I could manage was aggressive indifference. 

It’s funny to me that the same things I hate about Richard in Neverwhere – the bland generic everyman-ness, seemingly existing for the sole purpose of being the reader’s avatar through a weird and magical world – I didn’t mind at all in Shadow in American Gods. I think part of it was the spineless-man-with-domineering-girlfriend aspect, which is a horrible dynamic and not one Shadow was part of since he was a widower. 

I think the other part is agency. I’m always complaining about characters having agency. Whether they’re forced into dealing with something by the plot or by their own dealings, whether their actions make things better or worse, the only thing I require of characters is that they take actions of their own volition. I’ve stopped reading because characters did their best to avoid acting and because characters were prevented from taking any action. The one and only action Richard chose to take was to help the bleeding girl against his girlfriend’s wishes, and then he pretty much got dragged along for the rest of what I read. And I couldn’t bring myself to care about anything happening since it was all happening to him instead of him actually being involved in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

johndomc's review

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Vomit, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Death of parent

ggmariereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content