Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

5 reviews

jolineliest's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal death, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, War, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Body shaming, Genocide, Antisemitism, Cursing, Excrement, Deportation, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, and Sexual content

courtneyreadsometimes's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Gore, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Murder, Mental illness, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Rape, Misogyny, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Child death, and Death of parent

forsan's review

emotional

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

4.25

Ursula Todd, born in the decade before World War I, dies repeatedly as she grows up.  Each time she dies, her life begins again, and she accumulates an increasing sense of deja vu that can steer her to avoid previous deadly situations.  As she grows up, small choices can cause her different lives to diverge wildly.

Another one of my recent list of library recommendations, and again, I'm pleased with this one.  It had been on my radar for a while, and I had expected to like it, so I'm not surprised that it did.  I like repeating-life tropes, and so I had fairly high expectations for it.  There were some really sad parts (sad in ways that I hadn't expected--I knew this was a book about war).  The reflections on mortality were touching, and I found it really interesting to see the repercussions of Ursula's actions at different times.  I found the book really captivating, though there were a couple timelines that I think could have been shortened a little.

----

While I'm sure that no one really cares about this, it was interesting to me that the German in this book (and there's a decent amount) is not exactly excellent.  Occasionally there are German-involving allusions that are <b>stellar</b> (

"They willed Frieda to live and she did. Triumph des Willens--just wow!  Triumph des Willens ('Triumph of the Will') was a famous Nazi propaganda film, and the use of the phrase is so creative here.).  But sometimes there are things that just seem really out of place.  Notably,

"Ach so, mein Freund, für sie der Krieg ist zu ende" [all stet], intended: "...for you the war is over"

.  This is emphatically ungrammatical German that reads like an overly-direct English translation--the proper version would be something like

für Sie ist der Krieg zu Ende

.  Obviously the point of this book isn't the German, but I'm a little curious as to how things like these (and there were a number!) didn't get caught, for a book that involves a decent amount of German.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Rape

Moderate: Animal cruelty

superbowl's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Abortion

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

jowmy4's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Antisemitism, Death of parent, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Excrement, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Parts of this book are set during the Spanish flu, the London Blitz, the Bombing of Berlin and the German Third Reich, and feature the expected horrors of each setting. However, I think part of the point of the book is to say that tragedies, horrors and other malign things happen all the time, even outside of these big events and even in seemingly-idyllic and safe locations.