Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

114 reviews

chelle22's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Blood, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Dementia, Grief, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Violence

sanchan's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Animal death

Animal cruelty: There is a cat in Ove's quarter that looks like it's been treated very badly. Later he witnesses one of his neighbours throwing stones at it. Finally,

the cat was found half frozen outside but is saved and taken care of for the rest of the book.

Animal death: In a flashback, we learn about the death of Ove's wife's beloved cat.

craftysnailtail's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was almost a DNF for me. I'm glad I finished it, but I honestly did not like it until I was at least 80% of the way through. I simply did not like Ove. I know you're supposed to grow to love him, but I didn't. Maybe that makes me a monster, and I can accept that. His curmudgeonly traits were fine and a little endearing by the end, but sometimes he was flat out mean. I can't get behind that. 

I'm also fairly convinced that Backman has never met a cat before in their entire lives. A cat that licks steering wheels passive aggressively, happily wears socks, and calmly sits on bar stools in cafes they've never been in before was so out of left field. The rest of the book is very realistic, so the cartoon cat threw me in every scene they were in. 

The use of similes to describe every single disgruntled expression this man has ever had in his life drove me mad as well, but that's clearly a personal writing style preference, so to each their own.

The overall message of the book is... nice. And I think it gives the reader a nuanced perspective of what it's like to be a senior that society seems to have given up on. But the road to get there was gritty and uncomfortable. I mean I was rooting for Ove getting what he wanted for the vast majority of the book because it felt like his right to make that decision. At least I appreciated the ending, though. I don't think it's a book I would recommend to friends, but it was different from other books I've read recently, so that made it worth it for me in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fatphobia, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

riordanfan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Drug use, Terminal illness, Outing, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Miscarriage

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

Maybe I would’ve enjoyed this years ago or in a different mindset but I couldn’t get past the amount of white man xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, fat phobia and toxic masculinity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Xenophobia and Fatphobia

Minor: Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, and Ableism

animaniac17's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, and Cancer

megwhitlock's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of my all time favourite books, that never ceases to make me cry. Beautiful and hopeful and just downright lovely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Suicide, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Infertility and Cancer

Minor: Domestic abuse

Everything is handled in a sensitive and thoughtful way, and nothing is gratuitous.

juliabuliagulia's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I’m not ok.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Infertility, Homophobia, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Miscarriage

alex_bousquet's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Ove is your typical curmudgeon but that doesn't stop the new neighbor parvaneh from doing everything she can to befriend him. Ove grows so much as a person throughout the story and even though he just wants to be left alone to die to be reunited with his wife he is still so helpful to his neighbors. Ove is kind but not nice. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Terminal illness, Body shaming, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Dementia, Car accident, and Death of parent

annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

emotional sad 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? Yes

4.25

Ove grew on me slower than the author intended to but by the end i guess he's okay…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Car accident, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Body shaming, Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Fatphobia, Medical content, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Excrement