Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

131 reviews

bridrew's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Death, Excrement, Eating disorder, Child death, Animal death, Grief, Torture, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent and Pedophilia

badmom's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

A story of extreme grief told through the eyes of a young, confused, and increasingly unstable person. Some instances of lovely description but on the whole a disconcerting and ultimately distressing examination of a family that cannot put itself back together after a series of tragedies. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Incest, and Body shaming

Moderate: Incest, Abandonment, Suicide, Eating disorder, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Excrement

maya7's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Excrement, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, and Animal death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death, Pedophilia, Eating disorder, and Suicidal thoughts

inceptionistbooks's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

“Sadness doesn’t grow, only the space it takes up” 

Well, the title fits. It really isn’t a fun read, please take care and look at the trigger warnings beforehand! I’m not even sure that I got all of them below. 

If you hate questionable characters, this is not a book for you. The characters here are grieving and have found no way of working through that grief in a healthy way. So we see a family breaking further apart (because the issues were there before the loss) and Jas, the narrator, is consumed by her own grief and her own thoughts. It’s so clear that she has so much that she wants to talk about with someone who will hear it but no way of knowing how to or with whom. Her inner monologue has these moments which are almost heart-breaking in their simplicity but clearly show that she is barely holding it together (because she’s a child with no emotional support whatsoever). Her being constipated really is just an analogy for the fact that keeping shit in will just make things worse. Yes, it’s a major thing in the book and it is gross about it, so be aware of that as well. 

I’m very unsure how necessary certain elements were since I have the impression that it would have worked even if they weren’t included. I also wasn’t happy with the ending since it left you just feeling worse with no hope in sight. But I can’t necessary fault the author for going this route. 

This is one of those books that I could analyse to pieces because it is certainly well thought out but I would have to reread it and that won’t happen any time soon. This is HEAVY and I need something fun after this. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Excrement, Incest, Animal death, Child abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, Toxic relationship, Death, Eating disorder, and Pedophilia

hotgirleliott's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Incest

jiscoo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

4.25

shoutout to my calvinist upbringing for making this book make way more sense than it had any right to

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Vomit, Excrement, Grief, Suicide, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

megsspookysanctuary's review against another edition

1.5

Incredible writing, horrendous themes

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

ttyeds's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

I actually really liked this book at the beginning, but I guess I just thought every dark, challenging, disgusting thing in this book would lead to something. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child death and Suicide

vic_toria_book's review against another edition

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Incest

graviereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

EXTREMELY vivid imagery. Gross. Emphasis on discomfort. Disgusting but not in a fun way. Interesting read but highly cringe

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Excrement, Animal death, Self harm, Sexual content, and Incest

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Suicide attempt