Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

23 reviews

anniepatt's review against another edition

dark

• 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

3.5

I've been choosing audiobooks by sorting randomly and available now on Libby, then scrolling until I like cover art. It's kind of fun to go in mostly blind. Somehow I've read at least 4 time travel books so far in 2024, and here's another one! 

The villain in The Shining Girls was the most disturbingly written evil man I've encountered. Masterfully repulsive, 5 stars on that character development. 

This is another one of those stories with incredible potential that just didn't resolve satisfactorily, in my personal opinion-but I'd still seek out another book by this author. I did enjoy her style. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Animal death, and Murder

Minor: Abortion

abookdork's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Torture, Gore, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

caoimhemia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Torture, Death, Gore, Murder, Animal death, Blood, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Alcoholism

kleddy13's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved the structure and the originality of the plot, and the authors writing style. I predicted the ending half way through the book which is slightly disappointing in a thriller. I would rather an ending that I could have never predicted than one that makes me happy for the protagonist. I also only felt really emotionally attached to two characters, Tokyo the dog and the abortion activist who had a very short chapter.  All around I really enjoyed reading it and would recommend it, but it’s not perfect (what book ever is!) 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Torture, Death, Animal death, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

battybookworm's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Unfortunately, I kind knew this wasn't going to be a top book for me. The main reason I stuck with it at all was the opening scene with the bee (I had a similar experience at girl scout camp with my peers and a daddy long legs). Beyond that though, I found the focus of this book and the layout off putting. There are elements here that are deeply complex and could be quite interesting.

I don't tend to enjoy narratives like this one, somewhat akin to Forrest Gump where they touch on multiple points in history in a sort of cursory way. It feels a bit trite I guess, I don't know.

I will also say, this book is written very specifically in the US and takes a lot of culture and history as a source for its plot. However, the author is not from the US and there were many random wording errors that made it rather disbelievingly placed in the US (some things felt rather obvious like how we say going to the hospital rather than being in hospital, likely could've been edited out at some point). I don't think this is the worst offense in books, but I do think that it allowed the author to sort of surface level many of the characters without giving them backing to actually make sense in the world. This is mostly a racial thing, basically every major character is a POC but it feels silly at the end when this is suddenly revealed.

I'm mostly referring to Dan, the Dan reveal annoyed me.

 
Beyond all that, my favorite part was Kirby and there's a part of me that still wants more of her. I wish the book had given her more time, made her more central. It focused so intently on Harper and his murders when we already kinda had the gist there. Kirby was complex and strange and I never felt like we saw that as internally or fully as we did Harper's getting his rocks off. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gaslighting, Gore, Stalking, Body horror, Medical trauma, Death, Murder, Violence, Misogyny, Grief, Medical content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Abortion, Addiction, and Drug use

This book depicts multiple graphic murder events in fairly slim but clear detail. If you cannot stomach violence that includes stabbing and gore, I would recommended missing this book.

petragrlpwr's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

valjeanval's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

Beukes is a great writer and thorough researcher who created a cast of interesting, powerful, complicated women throughout time. It just sucks that most of them are murder victims. I think I understand conceptually her desire to give voice and depth to the as she calls them “pretty corpses” of crime thrillers, and she does that, but the genre itself is still limiting. The murderer is misogyny person, literally killing women who would otherwise change the world. It’s a solid metaphor, but a frustrating read.

Also, while the time travel element is cool, the paradoxes always hurt my brain a bit. The writing was good enough that my suspension of disbelief was only strained rather than snapping.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Outing, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Transphobia, Sexism, Abortion, and Gun violence

sophiemlpink's review against another edition

This has a fantastic premise with terrible execution. The pieces are there, the author just forgot to assemble them in any semblance of order. The murders are torture porn and the obvious metaphor for patriarchal society corroding intelligent women’s potential for changing the world just isn’t there. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gore, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

queersubtext's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Stalking, Body horror, Animal death, Drug use, Confinement, Blood, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Gore, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

cmkrasman's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? No

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Mental illness, and Murder