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ellislilylovestoread's review against another edition
Graphic: Eating disorder, Child death, Incest, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Self harm, Animal death, Child abuse, Mental illness, Death, Excrement, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Sexual assault, and Rape
janey_bones's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Physical abuse, Mental illness, and Grief
mel_j's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Mental illness, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, and Animal death
Minor: Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Alcohol, and Suicide attempt
sidekicksam's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Maar het was wel goed.
We volgen Jas, wiens broer Matthies door een noodlottig ongeluk om het leven komt. Haar gezin is ontwricht door de uitval van haar oudste broer: vader praat er niet over, moeder stopt met eten, en haar broer Obbe en zusje Hanna krijgen de ruimte niet om hun verdriet een plekje te geven.
Jas loodst ons door thema's als de dood, rouw, religie, leven in een boerengemeenschap, puberteit, seksualiteit en fantasie heen met de nieuwsgierige en open blik van een 12-jarige, waardoor het door tragedie doordrenkte verhaal niet aanvoelt als een steen in de maag. Het jeukt, het kriebelt en het fronsen staat je nader dan het lachen, maar dat maakt het boek alleen maar beter. Van wat ik in andere recensies las, ligt het wellicht ook aan de taal; het spreekt wel erg tot de verbeelding in de eigen taal, wat zorgt dat je eerder gruwelt van de inhoud dan wanneer je het in het Engels leest.
Als stadskind kan ik me geen inbeelding maken van hoe het leven in een dorp moet zijn geweest, maar ik geloof dat sommige elementen van dit boek dat wel goed weergeven. Het boek is doordrenkt van tragedie, maar leest verrassend 'makkelijk' weg voor hoe ongelukkig de personages zijn.
Ik lees eerst even zo'n 15-20 andere boeken voor ik weer een Lucas Rijneveld boek pak, maar een volgende komt er!
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Animal death, Self harm, Incest, Gore, Grief, Excrement, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Blood, Animal cruelty, and Mental illness
aisistoashes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Grief, Child death, and Death
paperknotbooks's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Excrement, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Incest, Sexual assault, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Gore, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Torture, and Self harm
heron_m's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Animal death, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Antisemitism and Bullying
james1star's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
Plot: not much to say here, it’s a character driven novel where little really happens. We’re following ten-year-old Jas via first person as she lives on a dairy farm in rural Netherlands with her family. Coming up to Christmas, Jas is worried her rabbit will be killed so wishes God take another… her oldest brother for example. This does occur after he drowns and what ensues is an exploration of grief on the family and her interactions with her younger sister Hanna and older brother Obbe.
Rijneveld does do a decent job at showing how grief takes over the lives of Jas’s parents with the mum becoming reserved, stops eating and increasingly suicidal. The dad turns very cold with both neglecting their remaining children to fend for themselves. This dark portrayal and decent into mental deterioration is very apparent and depicted relatively well. The writing is decent enough as well but as the book develops any positives became far outweighed by the negatives.
My main issue with this book is there’s just far too much grossness involved which become boring over time and just horrible to read. Rehashing depictions of bodily functions and products (snot, faeces, urine, bile, vomit, etc) are not only disgusting but I don’t understand why there’s so much of it. Reading about animal abuse and death are things I hate at the best of time but when there’s no justice served… nope!! I despise this so much, it’s a thing that attaches to me strongly and I can’t shift the feeling of disgust and anger. What’s worse is there are no consequences for these actions and it’s a terrible portrayal of such situations. A lot of the book also doesn’t make entire sense to me, specifically the interactions between Obbe and his sisters. He is a repulsive character in my opinion and the way he thinks and acts are really unfathomable that adds to my dislike of the book. In a similar vein, all the siblings don’t act in a way appropriate, it’s like Rijneveld put in all these horrific things over and over to impact the reader… but it just disgusts me. The family are part of a community with the children going to school so they’re not totally isolated which makes their actions more questionable. There’s a lot of hypocrisy prevalent as well, a note I picked up on was the anger the family feels to those culling the cows later in the book where they’re literally dairy farmers who abuse, exploit and eventually murders cows in the process… didn’t sit right with me there.
I might have more to say but don’t care to waste any more time on this book that I hated so yh. Read it if you want but I wouldn’t. Any messages and what Rijneveld wanted to achieve, for me they failed and I will not be reading their new book.
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Incest, Violence, Body horror, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Child death, Vomit, Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Antisemitism
biggaywave's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Excrement, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Body horror, Mental illness, Suicide, Child death, and Death
l4r4777's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Don’t pick this up if you’re easily squeamish and uncomfortable with any of the content warnings associated with this book.
Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence
Moderate: Antisemitism, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship