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laura119's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Drug use, Animal death, Death, and Infidelity
Moderate: Murder, Vomit, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
breeisreading_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
What an odd little gem of a book.
My mum got me this for Christmas, and although I know of Matt Haig mainly for The Midnight Library, I’d never heard of this novel, which is one of his early ones.
This was not what I expected - the title and front cover of my edition fooled me into thinking this would be an easy, happy read about a dog - don’t be fooled!! This broke my heart; deals with lots of serious events and trigger warnings, and a lot of adult and mature themes.
The perspective being told through the dog’s (Prince the Labrador) point of view was genius and I loved the childlike perspective that gave us as we didn’t have all the information, and found things out as the book progressed in real time with Prince. He was truly a captivating character and this book really was beautiful with the way it handled grief, love, family, relationships and the love between a dog and their Family.
The end has completely ended me though and I will likely never recover.
My mum got me this for Christmas, and although I know of Matt Haig mainly for The Midnight Library, I’d never heard of this novel, which is one of his early ones.
This was not what I expected - the title and front cover of my edition fooled me into thinking this would be an easy, happy read about a dog - don’t be fooled!! This broke my heart; deals with lots of serious events and trigger warnings, and a lot of adult and mature themes.
The perspective being told through the dog’s (Prince the Labrador) point of view was genius and I loved the childlike perspective that gave us as we didn’t have all the information, and found things out as the book progressed in real time with Prince. He was truly a captivating character and this book really was beautiful with the way it handled grief, love, family, relationships and the love between a dog and their Family.
The end has completely ended me though and I will likely never recover.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Grief
Minor: Alcoholism and Vomit
the_escapist's review
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
A suburban domestic drama from the perspective of a dog. Labradors have a pact that they should protect their human families at all costs. They believe whenever a family falls apart it’s either because the dog didn’t do its job or because the family didn’t have a dog. But other dog breeds world-over have abandoned the pact in favour of hedonism.
It’s quirky and charming, even funny in places with how seriously the main character (well, dog) takes himself, but I found all the family drama slightly tedious and most of the characters not very likeable. It also wasn’t the funny light-hearted read I was wanting/expecting it to be.
It’s quirky and charming, even funny in places with how seriously the main character (well, dog) takes himself, but I found all the family drama slightly tedious and most of the characters not very likeable. It also wasn’t the funny light-hearted read I was wanting/expecting it to be.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent and Vomit
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