Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

23 reviews

inmyths's review

5.0

absolutely adore this type of storytelling 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, War, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Suicide

jesshaleth's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

A dream about a play of a folk tale your grandmother used to tell you. And yet it doesn't feel distant and alien, like an abstract telling might, it just feels mythic and beautiful. ...okay well no some of it was quite graphic and I couldn't call it all beautiful, check the content warnings, but like it fit into the themes and vibes somehow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Violence, Murder, Ableism, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, and Vomit

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Abandonment, Alcohol, Rape, Torture, Child abuse, Sexual assault, War, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, and Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Homophobia

shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Ableism, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Minor: Abandonment, Excrement, Homophobia, and Suicide

whillsjournal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective 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? No

1.5

While I do truly appreciate the haunting added context from ghosts affected by the events, that was not intriguing enough to save this book. With the constant hopping of focus away from the “main characters” to gives pages of exposition on a side character, the journey they embark on has no care or motive behind it. The author also really has a thing for putting people in piles of feces (it’s weird it happened at all let alone multiple times) and ultimately, it felt like the author wanted to write a fluff of pages that included certain predetermined beats with as many pages between. The twist in the fourth section was intriguing, but not enough overall. Very brief moments of excitement filled with a deluge of uncaptivating page filler. The side/parallel narratives were fine, but at times distracting. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Excrement

Minor: Ableism

ksparo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense 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

One of the most beautiful books I’ve read. Stunning. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Blood

Minor: Death, Vomit, Excrement, and Cannibalism

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, War, Death of parent, Abandonment, Ableism, Alcoholism, Child death, Classism, Death, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, and Excrement

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Trafficking

niakantorka's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Every other year there’s a book among the many books one reads that’s unlike anything else. It can be the way of storytelling like in The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) or the play with composite and punctuation marks in The Stone Heart (Arno Schmidt) or the gargantuan idea in The Dark Forest (Liu Cixin). Amazingly, The Spear Cuts Through Water was also such a book for me.

Why did I think it is so special?

- There’s the way the story within the story which also contains countless other stories is told. 

- Then there is a potpourri of povs and tenses and among it everyone’s (except mine’s) least favourite second person pov. The narrator changes between paragraphs or even between sentences. One has to get used to it in the beginning but this unique style adds so much to the magic of this book. 

- There are different time lines, a more or less modern one where there are cars and telephones and a war,  the one of The Old Country where gods and magic rule and where your life can be forfeit in the blink of an eye, and the dream sphere where both worlds meet in a play on the stage of The Inverted Theatre set between The Moon and The Water and conducted by their child.

- Our protagonists in The Old Country’s storyline are on a quest to help the escaped Moon goddess to change the ruling of the country which implies to kill off her children and grandchildren. Let’s just say with one and a half exceptions this family is a living nightmare and one can relate to her wishes pretty soon. Oh, the two guys, Keema and Jun, have got 5 days to get this accomplished. No pressure. 

- Our protagonist in the modern time is more elusive and maybe one isn’t as engaged in her family tale as in the other thread running but both are and will be connected.

- Its language is vivid, its imagery vast, and it gave me the most superb fairytale vibes. 

- It’s also a very gruesome and cruel book which contains descriptions of all sorts of mental and physical violence and abuse. I went in without knowing more than its summary but I’m not one to be disturbed by a fantasy setting.

That said, I can see how this is not a book for everyone. And yet I loved reading it so very much. 

I can imagine that The Spear Cuts Through Water would be an amazing play or movie and - now that I know the story - is a worthwhile audiobook to listen to. Though I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try the latter from the beginning because it takes a while to get used to its style and to make the connections between its different parts.

This is a book for people who love to be surprised, who like a challenge, and who can be patient when it comes to gathering what it’s all about. You’ll be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind tale about life, love, and - yes - also about death.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Blood, Mental illness, Death, Dysphoria, Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Gore

laraloops's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Absolutely gorgeous. It took me longer than usual to finish because I kept stopping and rereading paragraphs of beautiful prose. The alternating POV's are masterfully done, it's mainly told in a theater setting and the side characters chiming in with their thoughts is such an amazing and cool concept that immersed me in the story. 

The story is heart wrenching and beautiful and so worth it. The magic and gods were dark and fantastical. I cried multiple times and it ends masterfully. One of the best books I've ever read. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War, Animal cruelty, Violence, Excrement, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual violence

brinipor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

WOWOWOWOW! This is one of the best books I've read in a minute! It's not for everyone, but it was for me! Normally, I don't like dense, slow-paced books, but this one had so much happening that I was having a grand old time. If you are into frame stories, messy characters, and don't mind second-person narration and hearing from all perspectives, I'd give this a try.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, and Ableism

Moderate: Kidnapping, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail