Reviews tagging 'Death'

Los leones de Bagdad by Brian K. Vaughan

3 reviews

spooderman's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Child death, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Sexual content, Deportation, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Confinement and Cursing

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.5

Kind of needlessly sexist and sexual. Feels like something that tries to be deep but misses the mark.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing and Confinement

bluejayreads's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

My husband has been pestering me to read this for a long time (I think a couple years at this point). I finally sat down and read it. It took me about half an hour, and I think this text conversation between my husband and I sums it up pretty well:

Me: I read Pride of Baghdad and it was so sad why did you DO that to me
Him: It's a good read though, right? A tragedy unlike any other
Me: I DID NOT KNOW IT WAS A TRAGEDY I NEARLY F***ING CRIED
Me: but yes, very good read

This is a sad book. A very sad book. If you do not want to see animals die this is not your book. If you do not want to cry or at least feel very much like crying this is not your book. It's a good story but that ending will make you sob. 

This graphic novel is based on a true story of four lions who escaped the Baghdad Zoo when it was bombed. The four lions (two lionesses, one male lion, and a cub) wander the bombed streets of Baghdad, seeing the horrors of humans at war without comprehending. Somehow that makes it even sadder. 

This is a good book. The artwork was good (I was not a huge fan of how the artist drew the lions' faces, but that's a minor personal quibble), the story was good, I got a solid emotional connection to these lions, it makes interesting points about the nature of freedom and the horrors of war. Just ... make sure you know going in that there are no happy endings here. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, and Rape

Moderate: Gun violence and War