Reviews tagging 'Death'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

23 reviews

lisahopevierra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Death, Abandonment, Murder, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad slow-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? No

2.75

Before I start this review, it should be noted that I had to read this for school and would not have picked this up on my own, so take my review with a grain of salt. I really enjoyed the first quarter of this book. After that, it felt a bit boring to me. It sounds odd to say it was boring, because so much was happening, but I just didn't really care about any of it. I feel as if there were too many characters to keep track of. and some of them could have been condensed into one character. I liked Oliver's character at first, I found him to be sweet and I really felt for him, but as the novel went on, I found him to be less and less realistic. The whole point was to showcase just how good Oliver Twist is in contrast to the harshness of society, but it might have been taken too far for me. Oliver just felt a bit too good to be true after a while. Other characters like Rose also made me feel that way. This is not a terrible book in my opinion, and I definitely see why it's a classic and why Dickens is such a classic author, but it also definitely wasn't for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Murder, Death, Violence, Child abuse, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Death of parent and Animal cruelty

Minor: Child death

linnylionheart's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide, Torture, Child death, Gore, Antisemitism, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Terminal illness

description of childbirth

sammy_nor's review against another edition

adventurous dark

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Racial slurs

owls_rainbow's review against another edition

reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Animal death, and Death

clotalksbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

I'm glad I finally read this classic. I love the humour of it, and the carefully constructed insults. Made me chuckle a lot, despite the rather bleak events. Such clever writing. 

The other characters are much more interesting than poor Oliver. And we are treated to a wealth of them from all walks of life. It is very illuminating as to what life was like during the period. 

This edition has lots of useful materials, such as a dictionary for the cant and slang words. The illustrations are very good, and add to the feel of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

camix_2000's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Murder

kathyovalle01's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Murder, and Torture

parenthesis_enjoyer's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Antisemitism, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, and Death of parent

theskyisthelimit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Overall, the writing and story were phenomenal. In fact, a certain misfortune upon a certain character made my eyes water just a little for a book (or movie, or story) for the first time. Absolutely terrific! The only things that really kept it from being five stars was the romance, as it felt rushed and unnecessary, and the slight lack of depth in Oliver’s character. I would have liked to see Oliver’s personality other than simply his morals or attitude (i.e. his interactions with Dick, the orphan boy Oliver became good friends with). I also find it worth mentioning that while some have commented on the misogyny in this book as a negative quality, I must disagree. You’ll notice the characters clearly depicted as “bad” are the misogynistic ones and those that are good or at least somewhere in the middle oppose it. Not to mention, some of the kindest and bravest characters are women, so if anything, I would say this book, while not necessarily feminist, is certainly anti-misogyny. 

Nancy’s death made me quite sad (even though I knew what was going to happen ahead of time) and the death of Sikes stood out to me as singularly grotesque save for deaths written by Poe himself, and I greatly applaud Charles Dickens for his spectacular writing in these two instances specifically.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, and Alcohol