Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

115 reviews

moonlitstardust's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood, Medical content, Abandonment, and Alcohol

nanc_282's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

magicinavalon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Child abuse

erebus53's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

This is a book I was assigned to read in highschool.. and that, like every other read I was set, I quit at page 37. I resolved to one day pick it up and digest it in it's entirety. Verdict? Not very filling, a bit dry, not that satisfying. If I hadn't deliberately exerted myself, I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.

The setting is ostensibly spooky. It's a cold and desolate windblown house, with warped trees and harsh weather. The introduction sets the reader ill at ease with a new tenant imposing himself upon the landlord's household, only to meet with dour people and rude manners. Every attempt he makes to act toward them in a warm or overly familiar way is oh so cringeworthy, and disconcerting.

The narrative is told through word of mouth stories. The main narrator on the history of the characters is a maid servant, but yet further detail is fleshed out through recounting the content of letters and anecdotes of others... this method of telling stories inside stories I have seen before in things like Shelley's Frankenstein.

The Classism in this is predictably rampant. The use of a Yorkshire accent is disparaged and laughed at. Frustratingly for me, the narrator of the audiobook couldn't do the dialect any justice and she fumbled through all the parts that are written phonetically in rustic parlance. This took a lot more work for me to interpret than if it were read fluently. Gah! t'th divvel wet ye!

Another recurring theme is the whole cliché of dark and light. A dark haired, supposedly ill-bred orphan is taken to hearth and home, and of course fair haired, light eyed, pale skinned people are seen as morally superior. A bit of vanilla Racism to rub into the literature. Well.. the book is old.. but I don't have to like it.

Honestly confused at what a teacher would hope to gain from getting teens to vivisect a book like this.. the book is pale and dreary, a litany of ills and intergenerational abuse, of slow burning insidious revenge. I mean, I used to be a goth.. I've listened to Kate Bush.. this wasn't even romantic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Holy fucking shit this nocked my socks off! The prose are phenomenal & moving. Not bad for a virgin with no friends who died at 30 from TB 5🪦

Joanne Froggatt also fucking slayed the audiobook 5🪦

NB Nelly doesn’t get paid enough to deal with all the BS from the Lintons + Earnshaws - get a better employer girl! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

ismildlypoetic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Three stars means I liked the book! (tbh as i mull over it in the coming weeks, it'll probably grow higher)

Okay okay okay, so this needs a rant.
So I tried reading this book a few years ago, got ten pages in, and said nope. I just opened it again, and it took thirty pages of me Hating it, but I kept going anyways. I think I had a slow-burn relationship with this book.

If you're not used to reading classics, the language took a While to get used to.

Anyways, actual thought time: even for five-star books, it's very very rare that I care about how a book will end. But for some reason, this book had me Gripping the pages; needed to know how it ended and what becomes of the characters.

So even for how much I honestly didn't love 90% of the characters (they all pretty much annoyed me) and how I didn't care about certain plotlines, the tidbit of me caring how it ended stood out dramatically.

I also loved that it followed an entire family for like two generations. Stories like that, where you build a World, not just a couple moments, are my favorite, and I don't think I've ever actually read one before in a book.

I will say, my favorite characters were

Catherine (junior), Nelly, and most importantly, Heathcliff. I have no idea why, but even when Cathy Jr. and Nelly were annoying me, even in his absolute worst moments, Heathcliff had this depth to him that even if I hated, I cared for. He was the perfect villain (or anti-hero, in my case)

.

Alright, that was my rant. Would highly recommend if you're into classics, eh if you're not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Incest

A good ton of this was just because it was written in the 1800s, so like, there are 1800s societal standards. But the child abuse specifically was pretty hard to read.

books_because_why_not's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.75

 To start off, I found the characters in this book to be insufferable. They were interesting, but awful people. I only liked two characters in the entire book, but they were not even the main character. It is fine to have characters who have flaws, but many of the characters were just terrible and had hardly any redeeming quality. At least, I want one main character to be likable, that’s all I ask. 

Also, this book put me in a really bad reading slump. I started this book in Early 2022 and finally got around to finishing it midway through 2023.The writing is very flowery and hard to understand in the present day. I had to look up summaries for chapters because I could not follow along. Brontë uses eye dialect (basically writing words misspelled to show how they were literally spoken) to convey Joseph’s yorkshire accent. This, however, made reading any of Joseph's dialogue absolutely unreadable. 

The story was fine I guess. It did not really capture me as a reader because it was kind of slow going. Many people describe this book as a romance, but I felt like this is not true to what I read. A lot of times character’s were physically assaulting each other. In my opinion, this story is more about Heathcliff’s revenge rather than a love story.

I really did not like this book and if you have similar tastes as me, I would avoid this book. I’m not saying “Wuthering Heights” is awful, it is considered a classic after all. It is just not my cup of tea and is the worst book I have read this year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

canyi's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

Read as part of a buddy read among friends so it’s more recreational/ to mock it as a romance. But my final opinion is that its not a romance to mock because

it’s not a romance but more of a horror, the true romance is not the “main” couple, they’re the source of the horror. The true romance in this book is the end couple, I guess you could look at it as a romance that blossomed from the pure evil doings of Heathcliff but it really doesn’t feel like it’s the main point.

Personally I prefer to read books where I like or enjoy the main characters so honestly it wouldn’t be my go to pick. However once I got past that I found it was actually a really easy/ captivating read once I acknowledged (not a major plot spoiler)

that it was not a romance but more of a horror.

. 

Despite the slow moving plot I felt compelled to finish it, at least just because I wanted to see if

Heathcliff is ever stopped

. Although I was inclined to give this a one star because I absolutely despised most of the characters, I don’t think I was supposed to like them. Honestly it’s easier to hate a character you’re supposed to hate than not liking a character you’re supposed to like.

3.5 stars because it wasn’t a bad story

just terrible people, although I will admit the rating would be lower if it didn’t have a somewhat happy ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

maddypat's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I think going into it with the expectation that it would be a novel about primarily romance and love made me struggle to understand it. Really, it's a story about flawed people experiencing trauma and loss, and how that shapes their life and the lives around them. Love is there, and I'd even say it's still relatively central, but it's less about the exploration of that love and more about the results of it. I would have given it just three stars until I read the last two chapters -- when I promptly began to cry my eyes out!

It's a bit slow for me but I can fully see why it's a classic and would recommend it to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty

the_quickening_tree's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Miserable plot, average writing, drags on more than is necessary. A classic, but not an enjoyable read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Grief, and Alcohol