Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Spear Cuts Through Water

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

101 reviews

allys_shelf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

This is one of the most beautifully books I have ever read. Jimenez makes use of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person POVs, sometimes all in the same paragraph. For that, this felt like an ethereal story. It read like a myth or a legend, like a folk tale.

There were points that I felt a little lost and confused, but overall the themes of this legend stuck with me. I would love to reread this book one day to see what more I glean and if I am more rooted in the story and less of a passerby.

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cadence99's review against another edition

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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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patlo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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niakantorka's review against another edition

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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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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

This is dense, literary fantasy that is very hard to describe. The writing style is a unique depiction of oral history and the differences between different narration styles. There were some styles of telling that I enjoyed more than others and some characters that felt more distant, but the interweaving of different stories was masterful.

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dryadsreadingnook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

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aleeqa's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

It takes me days to finish reading this story. This is the first time I'm reading this kind of writing style. I'm not sure it's because of the writing where the story was narrated from an omniscient viewpoint, or because the writing is too lyrical, that makes me feel like it's a chore to read this story. It requires me an extra brain cell to comprehend the story. Another thing that I don't like about this is the cannibalism.

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kevinscorner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

5.0

A Spear Cuts Through Water is a brilliant epic fantasy standalone with unique storytelling. A man enters a dream theater where he watches a retelling about his ancestors while recalling the same story as told to him by his late grandmother. Two warriors are transporting the body of an empress goddess on a five day pilgrimage to destroy the empire she helped build and break the hold of the emperor and the three sons she birthed. Two stories from two separate timelines that weaves together into one epic story.

This book has an unconventional story structure that will be the deciding factor of whether you will love it or not. It is told in first, second, and third person that interject together (even within the same paragraph), jumps between timelines, and has no chapter breaks. In second person is the man in his dream watching in the Inverted Theater as he also recalls the same boyhood story told to him by his aging grandmother. In third person are the two warriors as they travel with a dying god, defeat the Three Terrors, and help destroy an empire. And interspersed throughout are first person perspectives that are formed by random thoughts and statements from various random characters within the story. Taken together, it can feel overwhelming initially, but as the story goes along, it starts making sense why it is told in this way (and not simply just a stylistic choice).

The main storyline is that of Jun and Keema, two warriors pulled together by chance as the earth-bound moon goddess escapes from the clutches of the emperor and his tyrannical reign. The favored son of the First Terror, Jun struggles with his past action and all the harm and deaths he has caused, attempting to somehow balance the scale by aiding the dying goddess return to the Moon Throne. Keema is a disabled outcast from a long-dead tribe, looking for his place in a world that he doesn’t belong in, reluctantly pulled into the plot by an oath he cannot break. From distrust to an uneasy partnership to friendship and more, we see these two young men evolve and grow in an intricate, action-packed, dark, and moving story. It is brutal, honest, and even gruesome (cannibalism being an important aspect as well as body horror). But ultimately, this is a love story “down to the blade-dented bone”. It is wonderful.

A Spear Cuts Through Water is a standout—a layered, complex, standalone epic fantasy with storytelling that is quite a reading experience.

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