Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Circle by Dave Eggers

10 reviews

paguroidea's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, and Stalking

Moderate: Fatphobia and Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping and Slavery

eachz's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

God I hated this so much that I finished it out of spite. And then the ending was worse than I could have imagined. 

I'm pretty sure the author has a humiliation fetish and I say this both because of the EXTREMELY nauseating way every unnecessary sexual encounter was described AND the fact that he put his name on this book.

The whole thing was extremely 12-year-old-who-thinks-hes-deep. Imagine taking a really interesting, nuanced topic like internet privacy and then writing a one-note book with the most BASIC take and no grey area. So much of the time was spent explaining the new tech being developed in this hypothetical era -- which has, by the way, wildly inconsistent levels of ability, which is a pet peeve of mine -- and zero time bringing any dimension or sign of life to the cast of boring, unlikeable, flat characters. No one's motivations remotely make sense, and no one seems to have any thoughts or conversations that aren't a ham-fisted monologue on one end or the other of the ideological spectrum.

For a while I wondered if I was just bothered because it was written 11 years ago and hasn't aged well in terms of the conversation around tech and privacy. But no, I've read plenty of outdated science fiction that was still extremely enjoyable. This was just a terrible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Car accident, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality, Slavery, Colonisation, and Misogyny

asafekindofhigh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Suicide, Body shaming, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

phantomgecko's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I hated this book. It's agonizing to read.

But the 4 star rating isn't a mistake. Eggers had a message and related it perfectly.

Science fiction is a critique of the present. The Circle uses hyperbole but like just barely. The real possibility of this particular dystopia is chilling and sooooo frustrating.

Mae is the perfect protagonist. I didn't agree with a single one of her choices. Everything she chose was wrong or stupid. Her thought processes were believable, though, so it unfortunately all made sense. To have a character that swallowed all the propaganda (and helped create it) as the main character made the message that much more effective. More effective than just having the "bad guys" do all the bad things.

Honestly, I could write a really in depth literary analysis of this novel, but I don't have the time, and doing so would be too depressing/aggravating. And also patronizing, I think. I was originally going to point out specific things that happen in the book and how insidious they are, but...as a reader I trust you to see it. 

It's not subtle. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Cursing, Fatphobia, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship

melissa_m_m's review against another edition

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

missjeann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Classism

ashm9's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

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

1.25

God, what a trainwreck. This book misses all of the eeriness that would have made it memorable. Also the author used the word "ebullient" like 5 times. And there was intense fatphobia toward the ex-boyfriend. And I hated the main character - I just hated her. She felt very much like the author had never met a human woman before and thinks that all women are fat-shaming brats who are SO ANGRY when their parents have a medical attack and then get better??? because they had to drive to see them?? Damn, am I sorry that I finished this. As a brilliant reviewer of the movie (also apparently terrible) wrote online, the plot is "*clears throat* what if facebook but more." Also def characterized schizophrenia incorrectly. Like, google a thing once, dude. How am I supposed to give a single dried fig about a character who can't respect a single boundary???

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder

If you enjoy books where you like to root for the main character, pass.

iridaceae's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Cursing, and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Colonisation, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

morganperks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Child death and Kidnapping