Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Pod

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Pod by Laline Paull

10 reviews

laurenbastian's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.25

A terrifying and tragic story that shows us exactly the harm we do to our neighbors on this planet. The story is about dolphins and the complex and sometimes horrifying power dynamics and social structures of the ocean. But it is also about how, amidst and underpinning it all, humans have pushed these aquatic communities to annihilation. This is a book of climate grief that does not shy away from gore and violence.

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emilyseebold's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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aileen_macalister's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense 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

3.75

How would I describe this book to someone in one sentence?

Dolphin fanfic with an important underlying message and an overtone of sex and violence

SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT

The writing itself is so good! And it's such an interesting subject to cover, how mankind's actions have affected the balance of nature, but it was so hard to get past the amount of times this book describes in detail dolphin sex

It's the circle of life and all that but it was so distracting from the message of the book. The themes of the book are interlaced

1. Eco-fiction/Climate change
2. Feminism

It was an interesting take and one I'll be mulling over for a long time I'm sure. About half way through it I stopped thinking about these dolphins as dolphins and more an ancient alien race, stop me before I fall into conspiracy

The main character is "not like other girls" and when she leaves the safety of her pod because she has internalided her own flaws she is cap ured and then horribly abused on a number of occasions by other dolphins from another pod but she seems to just gloss over this fact. She becomes more comfortable and at home with her captures than she was at home which was very jarring.

All together a weird experience.

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julesreadsstuff's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I found it a little slow and complicated to get into initially but then once the pace picked up it was exciting and devastating and I didn’t want to put it down!

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julie123's review

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adventurous medium-paced

2.75

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creepycrawlybookworm's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative sad tense 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? No

5.0

I can completely see that this book would not suit everyone, but I really loved it. There were some real surprises in here, amongst the darkness. I generally love fiction with animal protagonists anyway, so maybe I am slightly biased, but I really appreciated this book for it’s beauty, rawness, brutal honesty, heart wrenching twists, and also the rays of hope.
If you loved The Bees, and The Handmaids’s Tale, I’d highly recommend it, but I would definitely check trigger warnings if you need to do so, some sections are brutal to read, representing the animals’ survival and struggles in graphic scenes, so please go in forewarned.

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elerireads's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

A bizarre and impressive book. It's fairly compact but manages to immerse you completely in the marine world and societal structures of multiple different species. My marine biology knowledge is minimal so I have no idea how well they reflect reality but it felt comprehensive and compelling. All the characters felt so real and individual. Somehow, through dolphins and whales and fish, the author managed to incorporate all sorts of interesting perspectives on gender and power dynamics and disability and race and parenthood and consent and displacement and coexisting with cultural differences. And of course, fundamentally it's a book that gives voice to the voiceless and mostly unseen victims of the destruction we're wreaking on marine ecosystems. As I said, impressive book.

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