Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

12 reviews

strawb3rrysugar's review

challenging dark tense slow-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? N/A

4.0

If you're looking for a grand, epic fantasy that's unlike anything you've read before, and you're patient enough for a non-linear reading experience that shifts POVs (and narration styles) and timelines every couple of pages, I recommend this book. It took a good while for me to "get into" it, or to even really know what's going on, but I believe this to be the author's intention - you will have lots of questions and few answers. Also, do look up the TWs ahead of time. This book can get unflinchingly grisly at some points; this does not reflect upon my overall review of the book, but if you can't stomach kind of intense gore, maybe pass on this one. 

As is the case with a lot of 500+ page books, this book plays the long game - you will spend a good portion of it not entirely clued into what's going on. While it starts slow and sometimes lulls in the middle, the third act is excellently crafted. Anyone who loves a gritty, raw (but not grimdark), deeply human fantasy would enjoy this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Ableism, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

Violence, war, trauma, and ableism are described often and in great detail, as they're core themes to the book. So there's a lot of the above, sometimes depicted cruelly - people in power enjoying the suffering of others to a strong degree. There's also many uses of the word cr*pple, and a sickly talking tortoise that's called "the Defective one." Some of the ableism is directed at mc Keema since he only has one arm. A lot of vomit scenes/mentions. A lot of references to bodily functions in general - piss, poop, and so on. Sexual content includes references to pornographic tablets sold by a street vendor and some sexual interactions with the main two MCs, eventually

culminating into a brief sex scene at the very end

The emperor's treatment of the empress in flashbacks could allude to sexual abuse.

britnic's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, Genocide, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

lanid's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• 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: Body horror, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, War, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, and Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Homophobia

prosenheim's review

adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Ableism, Physical abuse, Torture, Gore, Cannibalism, Sexual violence, and War

astrohannah's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Ableism, Animal death, Gore, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Murder

niakantorka's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

5.0

Every other year there’s a book among the many books one reads that’s unlike anything else. It can be the way of storytelling like in The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) or the play with composite and punctuation marks in The Stone Heart (Arno Schmidt) or the gargantuan idea in The Dark Forest (Liu Cixin). Amazingly, The Spear Cuts Through Water was also such a book for me.

Why did I think it is so special?

- There’s the way the story within the story which also contains countless other stories is told. 

- Then there is a potpourri of povs and tenses and among it everyone’s (except mine’s) least favourite second person pov. The narrator changes between paragraphs or even between sentences. One has to get used to it in the beginning but this unique style adds so much to the magic of this book. 

- There are different time lines, a more or less modern one where there are cars and telephones and a war,  the one of The Old Country where gods and magic rule and where your life can be forfeit in the blink of an eye, and the dream sphere where both worlds meet in a play on the stage of The Inverted Theatre set between The Moon and The Water and conducted by their child.

- Our protagonists in The Old Country’s storyline are on a quest to help the escaped Moon goddess to change the ruling of the country which implies to kill off her children and grandchildren. Let’s just say with one and a half exceptions this family is a living nightmare and one can relate to her wishes pretty soon. Oh, the two guys, Keema and Jun, have got 5 days to get this accomplished. No pressure. 

- Our protagonist in the modern time is more elusive and maybe one isn’t as engaged in her family tale as in the other thread running but both are and will be connected.

- Its language is vivid, its imagery vast, and it gave me the most superb fairytale vibes. 

- It’s also a very gruesome and cruel book which contains descriptions of all sorts of mental and physical violence and abuse. I went in without knowing more than its summary but I’m not one to be disturbed by a fantasy setting.

That said, I can see how this is not a book for everyone. And yet I loved reading it so very much. 

I can imagine that The Spear Cuts Through Water would be an amazing play or movie and - now that I know the story - is a worthwhile audiobook to listen to. Though I’m not sure it’s a good idea to try the latter from the beginning because it takes a while to get used to its style and to make the connections between its different parts.

This is a book for people who love to be surprised, who like a challenge, and who can be patient when it comes to gathering what it’s all about. You’ll be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind tale about life, love, and - yes - also about death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Physical abuse, Blood, Mental illness, Death, Dysphoria, Body horror, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Gore

jesslinnea's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Gore, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Confinement, Sexual content, Torture, and War

Gore is not a main component of this book, so the detail is usually minimal. However violence and death/murder are very commonplace.

sunjaybooks's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring slow-paced

5.0

This book has it all! Gender, family trauma, psychic tortoises, ableism, gay sex, moral ambiguity, genocide, the broad scope of history, magic and myth. It's beautifully written and also deeply deeply violent and yet still humanistic in its portrayal of the aggressors, victims, and all the morally ambiguous people in between.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Excrement, War, Ableism, Alcoholism, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Classism, Self harm, Suicide, and Genocide

atomicrobin's review

adventurous dark hopeful 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Self harm, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Murder, Religious bigotry, Rape, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Violence, Sexism, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Torture, Slavery, Sexual assault, Grief, Genocide, and War