Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

9 reviews

litliz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Sexual content, Classism, Confinement, Abandonment, Death, Vomit, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Outing, Bullying, Animal death, Murder, Grief, Dysphoria, War, Suicide, and Pregnancy

danicakvcs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, War, Death of parent, Animal death, and Murder

berglindsh's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Classism and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty

phoebemurtagh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Vomit, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Cursing

Minor: Death of parent and Animal cruelty

oliverreeds's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

5.0

FIVE STARS IT'S SO GOOD and the time skips are great and i loved this book. i wont lie this is what i needed and im so pissed off at the ending but in a good way and im..asdfno;aje

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Grief, Mental illness, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Child death, Cursing, Murder, and Violence

storykath's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm still reeling from the end of the book as I write this, but I'll try to collect my thoughts.

First of all, the whole premise of this series is the perfect mix of thrilling and dark and ingenious. The attention to detail and the immersive storytelling create a fantastic atmosphere. Even though this is the second book, there's still a decent amount of time spent on explanations/worldbuilding, and one of my few criticisms would be that these explanatory snippets, though interesting and relevant, sometimes interrupted the plot in an awkward place. We'd stop in the middle of a conversation to dissect some interesting tidbit, and by the time the conversation went on I'd forgotten what was going on. It was all still interesting to read and I didn't mind it much.
The character growth in this book, especially compared to the first book, is fairly slow and subtle, but it comes through like a punch to the gut at the best moments. Especially towards the end, there were many moments where I audibly gasped or made other incredulous gestures as the threads all tied together. Sometimes it was painful to see the characters apparently not growing or changing for most of the novel, but in retrospect it was an intentional choice to portray them that way, especially since the story is from El's perspective, who doesn't always pick up on what's going on behind the scenes in other people's lives.
It had been over a year since I read ADE, so I was a bit lost at the start of this book - there's not much of a recap or handy reminders to jog your memory, but a quick Google search solved that for me.
The writing style is amazing. There are vivid (and sometimes appropriately disturbing) descriptions, and El's voice as a teenager with the world on her shoulders was authentic, exciting, and often hilarious! Despite the darker contents of the book, El's narration and quick wit provided some great laugh-out-loud comic relief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Murder, and Pregnancy

nutm3g's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

I devoured The Last Graduate like my life depended on it, or more accurately as if I were a maw-mouth on a war path towards my next treat of a graduating Scholomance class. El's heroic journey develops wonderfully, albeit emotionally draining as she comes to terms with her potential and destiny. Orion and El truly appear as opposites perfectly balancing one another out, or as two sides of the same coin. I was delighted at the appearance of two queer couples (mlm and wlw) as well as a vaguely mentioned background love triangle turned triad. The cliffhanger has me desperate to get my hands on the next book in the series, even though I know the first chapter will most likely appear devastating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Genocide, Homophobia, and Murder

stephernay's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, and Vomit

purplatypus's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death