Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

29 reviews

toniboni's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

earthtomanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. My first full-length Atwood novel, and I am amazed at just how many aspects of humanity she is able to capture. While the plot should seem fantastical, she stays firmly in the plausible and (perhaps) the likely. Many scenes are incredibly graphic though, so tread lightly if that’s a concern — Going through the content warnings, it was hard to find something that wasn’t at least mentioned in this book.

I did struggle with how prominent discussion of sexual abuse towards children was. It was incredibly disturbing. I am still grappling with why that was a necessary inclusion — though it is Atwood, and I’m sure it was not done without some thought. Also, Jimmy can fight me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Murder

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book gives me a weird sense of nostalgia, I read it for the first time at 17/18 and it was my first foray into speculative fiction. 

I think it's the perfect combo of speculative fiction, interesting writing, characterization, intriguing plot, and weirdness.

The only bad thing about this book is that you can never get the first reading experience back once you know what happened to the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Rape, Excrement, Alcohol, and War

Child sexual abuse/ trafficking

smeagol357's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book so much. It dragged me over broken glass, put me on soft mattresses, and then whacked me in the head unexpectedly. Has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. Strongly recommend to everyone. Do not ignore the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

siobhanward's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

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

2.5

 I keep picking up books by Margaret Atwood thinking they'll be great. Some of her works are fantastic and hold up well and others just aren't that. I think part of the problem is there's a certain style to her works and some aspects I love while others I'm just done with. This book just didn't work for me - while I will say some aspects were pretty eerie after an actual global pandemic, one clever portion of the book did not make up for the rest, which was just meh.

I found my biggest issue was how slowly things moved. There was so much background that it seemed to take ages to figure out what was actually happening in the book. There were also some really graphic descriptions of child abuse, so be warned about those. Atwood has a gift for writing female characters caught in miserable situations, and her strongest works are ones where they can find the power to change those situations, while her weakest books are the ones where they just fall down and can't be saved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Medical content

aylaravenstar's review against another edition

Too dark and slow paced for me at this juncture.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, and Torture

thomasdj's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Animal death

greenglass67's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is easily one of my favorites. It’s such a unique story. Snowman’s journey and his reflections upon his life as Jimmy are deeply human. He exhibits so much passion for some things and so much apathy for others. The range of his experiences and emotions is wild, but it all works together cohesively. The world Margaret Atwood creates is a very chilling commentary on technology and science, and she pushes us to question how far advanced we can get without it being too far. The ending is remarkable. There are little hints and clues laced throughout the entire book that you don’t realize until the ending ties them all together, all the pieces fit into place, and it all suddenly makes sense. It answers all the questions you have, and leaves you asking several questions more. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

eimear_jane's review against another edition

dark reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

bluemaiden's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Pedophilia