Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Essex Dogs by Dan Jones

2 reviews

spookfish's review

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

Profoundly disappointing. I only pushed myself to finish it so I felt I could review it fairly, my opinion has barely changed since the beginning though. The entire time slogging through this I was BEGGING that this had been drafted and edited way more. The quality of the writing moves from sloppy, to tolerably middle-of-the-road, either that or I simply got used to it as I got near the end. The rough language was overused and became grating, the problem with writing down swearing how it may be spoken, is that it makes it sound incredibly childish. Jones did not balance this well.
The characters, if you can even call them that, are hollow. Nothing more than stereotypes and a loose role to play. I cannot describe some characters beyond their name, because they have no character, they are simple 'Scotsman' etc. I did not care when any one of the supposed main characters died, I was not given a reason to care. There were moments where I wasn't sure if Jones was dancing with making

Romford

gay, which was perhaps the only thing that kept me intrigued. I'm still unsure if it was intended to come across this way, considering the fact that the environment in the novel is intensely homophobic (I cannot speak for any historical accuracy on this behaviour).
Something I gave the benefit of the doubt to early on but quickly lost hope for was the way Jones writes about his fat characters (namely Sir Robert). Argument could be made for historical attitudes towards them, and it being in character, however the prose which is disconnected from a voice also describes the fat characters as something grotesque, to recoil at. As the Essex Dogs are removed from Sir Robert's company, these descriptions lessen as the character is put in the background, but they are still there.
I will not be reading the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pandemic/Epidemic

naomi_k's review

adventurous dark informative fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Excrement, and Vomit