Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks, Geraldine Brooks

12 reviews

kaydio's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Classism

rachkoch's review against another edition

3.75

i feel like this book (nor my opinion of it) is well served by a quantitative numerical rating. 

the writing in this book is very well done in my opinion and realizing that the story of lexington is like a true story is remarkable - certainly no easy feat to write.

i think my conflictong feelings about this book come from the modern storyline of theo and jess. i understand why brooks was juxtaposing the racism of antebellum america with modern america, and i won’t say it was done poorly, but it certainly felt really sticky for a

white author to kill off one her key black characters in a police shooting

. i’m sure someone smarter than me can elaborate on why that feels so sticky.

anyway all that is to say that i’m conflicted on how i feel at the end of the book, but that doesn’t have anything to do with writing or really the plot. it’s a good, well done book. doesn’t mean i’m not conflicted. also heed the TWs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Slavery, Vomit, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault

main character who is black is killed in a police shooting, the cop is exonerated

chelle22's review against another edition

challenging hopeful inspiring tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

vanessagrausam's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual assault and Blood

mariposa517's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Cursing, Islamophobia, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

mitchelldavis1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and War

booksandbabble's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Police brutality

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Sexual assault and Pandemic/Epidemic

menglert's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I usually love this kind of historical fiction/timeline switching/multiple POV parallelism, but this one didn't totally click for me. Some of the POV choices were a bit confusing, with some characters only having only one or two chapters. 

I think the core of this book was quite effective at examining themes of racism in America's past and present, so it could be worth the read for that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Grief, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, and War

melissabristol's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.75

The only thing I thought was less than ideal was the ending.  Sending Jess back to Australia felt like a bit of a way to avoid harder questions about where her relationship with Theo was going and the interracial dating issues that would have been raised there.  I don't deny that, sadly, Theo getting shot was a realistic outcome (see, e.g., Ahmed Aubrey, RIP), but I felt that it was in some ways throwing a HUGE issue in without really having time to discuss it.  It could have been a book of its own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

creativerunnings's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death and Death of parent