Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

11 reviews

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

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

dwager's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book is early Dickens, and wanders a bit in terms of the story line. It is a dark and melodramatic look at the underworld of Victorian England,  much darker than any adaptation I've seen. The characters are archetypes of criminals, innocent child, benevolent grandfather, etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Physical abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, and Deportation

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Ableism

Minor: Racial slurs

your_true_shelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, and Murder

fatkidatheartreads's review against another edition

dark

3.0

"It is a world of disappointment ; often to the hopes we most cherish, and hopes that do our nature the greatest honour."

Most of the characters got horrid endings. Some were deserved and some (particularly 3 of them) were totally uncalled for. Mr Charles Dickens decided to give this intriguing tale a very realistic ending and let's just say, I was not ready for all of that to go down. 

I struggled a little with this writing, but I'm still so glad I finally got to read about the woes of Oliver Twist and the seedy underbelly of fictional London pickpockets in the 1800s.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Animal cruelty

jrjohnson1408's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, and Child abuse

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child death and Alcohol

whisper88's review against another edition

Beautiful language, but too much symbolism and irony. I generally love satire, but without any real mirth or romance to relieve the gloom it left me feeling too depressed after the first eight hours to slog through another eight hours...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty