Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid

4 reviews

sshabein's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Not bad, but definitely not as enjoyable as some of her other books I've read. At least, even though it's from the early '90s, the homophobia and transphobia regarding the subject matter remains somewhat minimal (I mean, I guess. I expected worse), but not everything holds up. I may read others in this series still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Animal death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Transphobia

Minor: Police brutality

unripebanana's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Murder, Homophobia, Torture, Police brutality, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

via_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual violence, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child abuse

emilistevenson's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Hoo boy, okay, let's get it out of the way. Concerning a trans character, there is some major Values Dissonance (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ValuesDissonance) between the audience reading this in 1995 and the audience reading this almost 26 years later. This gets pretty uncomfortable, so please support some of the trans writers - Juno Dawson and Juliet Jacques - McDermid has recently championed.

Anyway, other than that it's a pretty dark, pretty good, serial killer mystery with medieval torture instruments and a sub plot about erectile dysfunction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Suicide, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Gore, Death, Body horror, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Vomit, Transphobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcoholism