Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

57 reviews

mfrank's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Murder, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Slavery

brookiebridge's review against another edition

dark sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

One of my favorite books of all time. The pacing is the best I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t put the book down and finished it, sobbing, at 3 in the morning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Rape, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Body horror, Slavery, Cannibalism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Torture

The book builds up to the reveal of why the main character survived and what happened to him.

He watched as alien children were killed and eaten, and his friends died trying to stand up for them. He was then forced to also eat the alien children to survive, him and his friend underwent medical disfigurement of their hands and his friend died as a result. He was then sold to a brothel where he was raped repeatedly, and accidentally killed a child who had come to try to help him, thinking the child was a rapist at first. He is repeatedly confined to small spaces and isolated. Half of the story is him being investigated by his superiors, who don’t know he was raped but believe he committed murder and had illicit sex, since he is a priest. He has severe ptsd but the investigation forces him to confront his past.

lowpolymel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Child death

goofymango's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

5.0

I don't think I've been emotionally impacted by a book to such an extent for a very, very long time - which is, in part, probably why I'm giving this a 5 star rating, something I don't do very lightly. As someone who has no religious leanings whatsoever, I was unsure if this book would really speak to me, but my reservations were utterly and completely unfounded. The style of writing - the flow, the pacing, the prosaic quality - is beautiful, yes, and as an avid science fiction fan the plot is intriguing to say the least. But what truly captivated me and made me so intensely invested is the characters. It is difficult to explain and put in to words, but this wonderful, unique and seemingly bizarre mix of characters felt so real, so tangible and believable in a way not many authors manage to nail. The way the story unfolded was both interesting, fascinating, shocking and, eventually, tragic - I have quite literally only just finished the book as I type this review, and I'm not being hyperbolic when I say there's still tears in my eyes! This is the sort of book that, once you finish it, you feel quite bereft and as if something has shifted for you, in all the best ways possible. All I can say is, read/listen to this book. It's gorgeous, profound and introspective, and a thoroughly excellent story. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Child death, Rape, Grief, Death, and Sexual assault

tauboi's review against another edition

challenging dark funny 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Murder, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual content, and Rape

mandkips's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Slavery, Cannibalism, and Violence

kendalsbookcase's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: War, Murder, Cannibalism, Death, and Child death

Minor: Religious bigotry

returningtobooks's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

A very interesting read. Even as a non-religious person the characters faith and the search for God is very beautiful, at times maddening or harrowing, but constantly intriguing. I can see how I would benefit from having more of a religious background for it to resonate with me even more, and possibly it would have received an even higher rating from me then.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Child death

Moderate: Cannibalism

missbear's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

The Sparrow has been on my radar for quite awhile—I've seen people mention it, people quote it, people but it's only in the last year or two that I've fully grown into my absolute First-Contact-With-Aliens obsession. A surprisingly large percentage of my recent five star reads have fit into this trope. And I'm not even usually much of a trope or plot reader — I can't think of any other topic like this, a theme that makes me so very confident that I'll like a book.

What really gets to me are these books about encountering an alien race, where the focus of the story is on linguistics and anthropology and diplomacy and (some) biology, like the aliens are being approached from an academic rather than political perspective. This was such a perfect example of this kind of story, because Russell goes out of her way to develop the philosophical questions that her characters are interested in exploring through the existence of the inhabitants of Rakhat (this is why I didn't mind the questionable science in this book, since it just seemed like obviously not the point). And although some of those questions are related to religion, I felt like most of them were broader than that and were presented in a surprisingly subtle way, given the plot summary of this book. I'll admit that not all of this book is super subtle — probably the most obvious criticism of it is that the characters are kind of caricatures who are unbelievably optimistic, bordering on dangerously and foolishly so, and joyously happy in each other company all the time.

I also was very impressed with the pacing and structure of The Sparrow. It's a bold move to give away a tragedy at the beginning of your story, especially a story that is packed full of hope and community and joy. It is almost too brutal to read this book, knowing that there's no way out of the ending that's been promised by the beginning. But it worked for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Rape, and Death

caryandthehits's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Child death