Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

27 reviews

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

It’s so rare that I find a book that is truly top of my list, five stars, yet this one has absolutely hit it out of the park. A rolling, poetic masterpiece that weaves together two ends of a long tapestry with such beautiful precision. I listened to this one on audio and I’d HIGHLY recommend the experience as it very much feels in the style of oral storytelling. I suspect that this book will stay on my mind for a long time, and it has certainly earned a spot among my all time favorite reads.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, War, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Grief, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Addiction, and Alcohol

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.

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Content Warnings

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

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, War, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Alcoholism, Classism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Homophobia, and Confinement

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Sexual violence

cozyscones's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, War, Death, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, Gore, and Animal death

Moderate: Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Torture

Minor: Misogyny

sunjaybooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring slow-paced

5.0

This book has it all! Gender, family trauma, psychic tortoises, ableism, gay sex, moral ambiguity, genocide, the broad scope of history, magic and myth. It's beautifully written and also deeply deeply violent and yet still humanistic in its portrayal of the aggressors, victims, and all the morally ambiguous people in between.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Excrement, War, Ableism, Alcoholism, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Classism, Self harm, Suicide, and Genocide

ticktock's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Animal death, and Death

brideshead's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A perfect blend of first, second, and third person perspective that masterfully evokes folklore, epic fantasy, and brutal human drama. It haunted me the whole time, and it was a visual delight with searing imagery. The characters probably will not leave me for a long while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, War, Excrement, Death, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Body horror

uncreativeoops's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

I'm still a bit confused tbh. The worldbuilding was really impressive as well as the characters and plot, but I felt kinda detached from it. Loved the inverted theatre part and the switching to 2nd person POV, which gave the main story the atmosphere of a fairy tale. There are also short parts in first person which I now want in every fantasy novel, it was such a good way of humanising background characters and conveying atmosphere. Sometimes the writing was a bit clunky, but most of the scenes were incredibly visual; I could totally see it as a movie. Or maybe several movies, because every part/day had a completely different vibe and they didn' quite connect. And when it started with this magical theatre and fairy tales about how the moon fell in love with the sea I did not expect this much graphic violence. But definitely a new concept. The closest comparison i can think of is The Forever Sea by Joshua Philipp Johnson though the setting is very difderent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Torture, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism and Excrement

Minor: Death of parent

kassiereadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Murder