Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

O mare de lacrimi by Ruta Sepetys

12 reviews

themichellegray's review against another edition

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

3.0

A beautifully written yet heartbreaking historical fiction that captured a part of WW2 I'd never learned about before. While I appreciate this book, I simultaneously struggled with the pacing and sadly never became fully invested in any of the MC's due to the storytelling format. Despite my personal reading struggles, this story is so important and the author's note perfectly sums up why:

History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and remembrance. Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past.

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taracloudclark's review against another edition

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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

5.0

An excellent story told from four perspectives of one of the most horrific events in history. 

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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I had difficulty writing a review for this book because I got to the end of it and realised that it was a historical fiction piece based around a real life maritime incident. As such that shook me up a bit and it was a little hard to get my feelings about it clear. It was yet another case of reading something for book club without having looked it up first. I think that's a pretty valuable experience because it means you see things with fresh eyes, but sometimes you don't want to reread it with the knowledge of the outcome. I don't have the tenacity to reread this.

The book was slow. It was the first time that I have ever noted the similarity between the stories of apocalyptic zombie survival, and those of refugees. There is a lot of cross country wandering.. hoping you are going in the right direction, not knowing if anyone you run into is going to be friend or foe, not knowing if you will find food or shelter, and coming up with a Plan to hold a ragtag bunch of travelers, of different ages and backgrounds, together long enough that they might get someplace safe.

This is the second story I have read recently with a blind girl in a world war. It was hard to read this book and not be occasionally reminded of "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. This is also because in both stories there is a viewpoint of a German soldier as counterpoint to what is going on with those fleeing. The depiction of the main German character is interestingly unsympathetic, as he turns out to be a jumped up coward, universally disliked by his fellows, and radiating hot waves of obsessive, sociopathic Incel Energy. I'm sure this jab is a lot more meta, than useful for building the story, but he is certainly a part of this book that I won't forget in a hurry.

The story was ..ok. I didn't dislike it, but it's not something that would bob to the top of my recommendations list.

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mdavis26's review against another edition

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4.25


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kat_rowlen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Haunting and heartbreaking 

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amberinbookland's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes

3.75


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strange's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ahhhh there are so many feelings god 
I want Emilia back please and thank you I did not think I would care this much for her character but I Ache
There are some structural issues with the book and some of the tropes are iffy or feel fake but the characters are absolutely wonderful 

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izwit's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5


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shybookstagramer's review against another edition

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4.0

 It's crazy what you do and don't learn from the history books. I had no idea that this event occurred during WWII. I'm so disappointed that we were never taught about this, but we know about the sinking of the Titanic. This shipwreck and all the others that occurred on January 30, 1945 caused so many many deaths.

I thought this book was beautifully written and brought this tragic tale to my attention. I like how the story was told from 4 completely different perspectives so that readers can see how this tragedy affected so many different types of people. I felt for the characters. I thought they were all unique and well-written. I grew very attached to them and became so invested.

There were some moments where I didn't necessarily want some of the descriptions that I got, but they did show the horrible things that occurred.

This is a very heavy read but I think it's important that people read it because we need to learn about events like this that are never talked about. 

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kalin_grace's review against another edition

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

4.5


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