Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Pod by Laline Paull

13 reviews

aoiferyan's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really liked how different this book was. It was my first time ever reading a book from animals’ perspectives. At times I found it difficult to read due to the nature of the explicit themes. I liked how different characters that were introduced had their stories cross over. It was a bittersweet end and I really found Ea to be a compelling character. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Murder

ank3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Grief, Slavery, Ableism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Bullying, Sexism, Body horror, Sexual assault, Racism, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, Classism, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death, Chronic illness, Rape, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

julesreadsstuff's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Death of parent, Excrement, Murder, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

bookbinbaby's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

This is a story of our times, it will haunt and inspire in equal measure, it felt like 'Game of Thrones' meets 'Seaspiracy' for me. Brutal. Reflective. Memorable. The characters are each very interesting in how they are individually and where they interact with each other. Holds a mirror up to how we take and overpower the natural world and don't appreciate the fine balance of mother Earth and are selfish as a race and unnecessarily cruel. Laline Paull and how she is able to draw readers in to a world and society we would recognise but populate it with cetaceans and other sea fellows just amazes me and is a talent that is as unique as it is captivating deserves a lot more recognition.  I'll be reading Bees by her next, and will appreciate the natural world even more in an entirely different way than I ever did before. Powerful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Addiction, Rape, Misogyny, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

rheagoveas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Rape, Blood, and Murder

beebeewin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The concept and character work of this book was fantastic. Laline Paull masterfully took the perspectives of multiple types of sea life without hesitation. She made you love, care for, hate, and invest in all the stories of all the creatures. I will say Paull did make the reade suffer through some gratuitous violence and trauma that I honestly don' think was unnecessary to understand the characters' personalities and perspectives. In addition, I felt that this trauma was the main focus instead of discussing the survival and resilience of the creatures. I wanted more in the end. More of their stories and their future but I am happy with the story I got regardless. An interesting read with beautiful imagery and harrowing perspectives on how humans affect the ocean and the life within it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Sexual violence, and Murder

elerireads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Misogyny, Violence, Gore, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Sexual violence

kwahl's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Excrement, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, War, Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Torture, Trafficking, Vomit, Genocide, Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

booking_along's review against another edition

dark informative sad 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

3.0

this is a bit of a difficult book to rate and review. 

i see why people love it and i can see why people don’t. 

it’s brutally honest and how’s a direct view into how the marine life is effected by humanity in different ways - but all of them destroying and killing the marine wild life  in some way either directly or indirectly.

so this isn’t a light fun read but a brutal one. 
but one that needs to be told that way. 


so i can see why some people read this and are horrified by how it is written and describes some moments or how they… well not like since it’s brutal and horrific but that this book does what really happen justice and because of that is very well done. 


as someone extremely invested in marine life and wanting to help in any way i can… i expected to love this. 

and in some ways i was blown away by how the author managed to tell this story as she does. 

but at the same time… i don’t like the humanization of the animals. i didn’t enjoy reading the thoughts and “hearing” the animals talk with each other in the same ways that humans would. 
and that might sound weird but i but i can’t explain it better than that. 

i just would have liked a more nonfiction fiction writing style as an observer that sees the different behavior in Ea and all the other things and tries to understand… i don’t know.

i just didn’t love reading about dolphins and whales that  thinks like a human. 

i don’t even know if it’s just because i wasn’t in the right mindset or if the writing style just doesn’t work for me but something just kept annoying me with this book and it’s story it just never became this great story to me that it could be. 


i wanted to read this and love this but sadly it didn’t work out like that. at least not for me. 

but i do think that this book can work for a lot of people and that anyone that thinks this looks interesting should try it. 
and it’s wonderful that this book became short listed for the “women price for fiction” because hopefully more people will read it because of that and will learn and see the horrors that the oceans and the inhabitants of it go through. 
which certainly is something more people need to learn and hear more about! 


so i do recommend this book.
even if it didn’t work for me personally as i had hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, and Violence

izzzzzzie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Rape, and Animal death