Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld

126 reviews

vic_toria_book's review against another edition

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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-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

3.5


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lucy_junor's review

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

3.5

“We find ourselves in loss and we are who we are - vulnerable beings, like stripped starling chicks that fall naked from their nests and hope they’ll be picked up again.” 

A truly heart-wrenching portrayal of death and grief through the eyes of a child. While many parts of this book made me very uncomfortable I also found something very relatable and honest in Jas’ rationalisation of what was happening to her family, as well as her desire to single-handedly fix her parents relationship and become one with her siblings again.

I also sympathised with Jas’ need to find justification in what’s happening to her as she grows up and adapts to the ever changing dynamics in her family and community - I think that’s something everyone can understand at a personal level in one way or another.

This novel does a beautiful job at showing how our relationship with grief is not linear but rather something that follows us throughout our lives like a shadow, effecting everything we think, do, and become.

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graviereads's review against another edition

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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

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annniina98's review against another edition

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4.5


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erikwmj's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

3.5


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bumble_abi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

The time I spent reading this kept flipping between underwhelm and admiration - completely unlike anything I've read before and increasingly unhinged (but that's the point, right?). Not a huge amount actually happens but I kept reading because the tone is one of suspension, emotion unresolved, and I had to know where it landed. Fortunately it DID land somewhere (I did wonder if Rijneveld was going to leave us hanging there, it would have been a valid artistic choice imo) and when it did it totally winded me. A deeply uncomfortable novel punctuated by moments of brilliant sunlight, wildly sad and grotesque and somehow shining for it all.

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judythedreamer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

1.0


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jadereads_'s review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-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

4.25


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ficteon's review against another edition

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

3.0

A very, very uncomfortable read. The grossest book I've ever read. Though I think I'm excusing a lot of the gross behavior in it as it's spookymonth and I'm reading it as a horror Halloween book, but it's gross. If I read this in March I'd probably hate it. 
Still it made me keep reading to find out what happens to the child mc. I also get why it was gross in someway, as it is meant to be uncomfortable and traumatic, and it's about what grief does to you if you handle it the wrong way. Though.. why would you ever want your name to be on this book? I wonder why she wrote this. 

It was still interesting, but for it's contents I don't think I can give it higher than a 3, but also not lower as the story did make me invested, and it was a horror read as said before. If you plan on reading this, do it now and not in other months. Or if you love gross books, go ahead, this one is really gross.

Though the Dutch culture, and Christian Dutch culture was fun to read throughout this book as someone who comes from that culture. Lot of recognizable things mostly from my siblings memories. I think my brother is born the same year as the MC. I would've been born around the time of the book.



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