Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

13 reviews

teabrewer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

I loved this book! I loved the characters, the world-building, the references to other works of scifi, the surprising ending, the themes of friendship and the scientific sections.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Kidnapping and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Sexism, Suicide, Cannibalism, Alcoholism, and Vomit

violerwolf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-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? No

3.0

This book wildly oscillates between being 2 stars and 4 stars for me, so I averaged out the rating. People really love this book, and I understand why. Andy Weir has really mastered using tension and keeping you constantly guessing, wanting to find out the next piece of the astrophage puzzle. The science is written in an understandable way. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the humor and dialogue that Weir writes is.. painful. I hardly could get through the first 5 or so chapters of this book with its Marvel movie-esque “Well, that just happened” quips. The book excels at tense action, and I do love the relationship between Grace and

Rocky

, but I wouldn’t  reccomend this if you’re looking for complex or interesting characters.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Medical content, Vomit, and Death

Minor: Cancer, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, and Suicide

Not-really-spoilers about the Suicide tag:

The major plot point is that Project Hail Mary is a suicide mission.

corallydeer's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

This book was absolutely fantastic. I read it in tandem with the audiobook in a book club setting alongside my husband and it was such a great time. As far as the book itself is concerned, I truly adored the whole story and was glued to it the entire time. As a note: I have not read The Martian (yet) and have only seen the movie, so I can't speak to any comparisons between the two books. I did see in previous reviews that some people felt like Grace was pretty much the same character as Mark Watney just rebranded as a

quirky school teacher

, and while I do agree with this point I don't feel like it detracted from the story at all. If anything I felt like blending that personality with someone who's

a teacher

was incredibly fitting and made it extremely relatable as someone who

works in education

.

I loved all of the directions the story took and the details; every time I felt like I had a handle on where the story was going it would throw a slight curveball and I'd be glued to my chair trying to figure out what in the world was going to happen. I adored

Rocky

so so much as a character; my husband and I both loved that

he wasn't a stereotypical humanoid alien

as well and the details describing him were incredibly well done. The relationship between the two characters was hilarious and heartfelt and left my husband and I crying in the car on multiple occasions. I strongly agreed with this one comment on a Tiktok video about the book by someone named Amanda that said:

"

The way Grace went from being forced to sacrifice himself for humanity to voluntarily doing it for Rocky [...]

"

This book truly left such a wonderful impression and is easily getting categorized into the books I wish I could read again with no memory and will easily be a reread-er for me.

As an additional review for the audiobook: I 100% recommend that everyone try out the audiobook either in tandem with the book or on its own. It's easily one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to and was so masterfully done. The way that they did

Rocky's dialogue

was phenomenal and blew my husband and I's minds. And we were blown away by the level of emotion that the narrator put into Grace's parts. It was truly an amazing part of the whole experience for us!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Grief, Suicide, Confinement, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Excrement, Blood, Cancer, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Sexism, Cannibalism, Cursing, War, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

Confinement

(Grace is technically confined on a pretty small spaceship throughout most of the book and is also forcefully confined in a cell in a later part of the book)

| Death

(death is an extremely large part of this book since it's focused on a suicide mission)

| Grief

(Grace experiences detailed grief over the loss of his crewmates and his own impending death)

| Medical Content

(there are various bits of described medical situations including blood draws, the use of the Nannybot, catheters, etc)

| Suicidal Thoughts & Suicide

(one of the primary plot points of the book is that the Hail Mary mission is a suicide mission; the main character regularly thinks about this and it comes up in detail in a number of flashbacks)

| Alcohol

(recreational drinking is described on a few different occasions, including for celebrations)

| Drug Use

(one of the astronauts on the Hail Mary mission requests a recreational drug to use up until committing suicide upon completion of the mission)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Grace experiences chemical burns from ammonia and fire is depicted in a few situations)

| Gun Violence

(one of the astronauts on the Hail Mary mission requests a gun for his preferred method of suicide upon the completion of the mission)

| Injury/Injury Detail

(there are a number of injuries experienced and sustained throughout the book)

| Kidnapping

(Grace is revealed to have been forced onto the Hail Mary mission and is essentially kidnapped and confined for this)

| Animal Cruelty

(the Nannybot arms on the Hail Mary are revealed later on to have been perfected through animal experimentation)

| Blood

(there are minor depictions of blood through blood draws and at the beginning of the book with the removal of the catheter)

| Cancer

(there are minor references to cancer in relation to radiation and exposure)

| Cannibalism

(it is revealed in the very last chapter that for Grace to survive on Erid the Eridians eventually learned how to clone his muscle cells and produce meat for him so he is essentially experiencing self-cannibalism)

| Cursing

(Grace pretty much never curses due to his habits as a teacher, but other characters curse a bit)

| Excrement

(there is the usual understanding of where drinking water comes from on the Hail Mary ship [recycled and treated urine] and later on there is mention of "poop" related to the waste coming from the Taumoeba cells)

| Murder

(it's revealed later in the book that Stratt forced Grace to go on the Hail Mary mission to which he accuses her of murdering him since he doesn't want to go)

| Panic Attacks/Disorders

(Grace experiences a panic attack when first exposed to zero g's on the Hail Mary)

| Sexism

(Stratt reveals during the Hail Mary astronaut selection process that she specifically put the call out for heterosexual men because she didn't want to deal with potential sexual tension on the mission, this is called out and results in a bit of back-and-forth)

| Sexual Content

(some of the astronauts that volunteered for the Hail Mary mission openly discuss their sexual escapades in relation to enjoying their finals days alive on Earth)

| Vomit

(periodically there are small bits of depicted vomit like when Grace enters zero g for the first time or experiences painfully high g's)

| War

(there is passing speculation throughout the book about the potentials for widespread war on Earth while Grace is in space trying to save the planet, but we never see any of it as the reader)

lunar_witch's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Abandonment, Cancer, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Addiction, and Excrement

brothertubber's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

The author makes a weird joke and the expense of vegans early on in the book, and later tries to object to animal testing citing their care about animal welfare. The mc also proceeds to eat meat by choice.

It's a minor thing but moral consistency is important in a book where one of the central plots focuses around

showing consideration and providing welfare for a non-human species.

The main character is like an annoying and less likeable version of Mark Watney, Rocky is the saving grave of this book.

Worth reading, but if you lived The Martian make sure you lower your expectations before diving into this one.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty

1414's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement and Suicide

Minor: Animal cruelty

lindsbian's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

Absolutely love this book. It was hard to resist staying up all night to finish, but ultimately had to pause even with how difficult it was to put it down - but as the book points out, we humans do need sleep! Project Hail Mary has so much of the fascinating sci-fi that made The Martian so successful, but the development of alien phenomena has led to such more creative worldbuilding. I love how the story realistically didn't tie up every single loose end, but it still had such a wonderful satisfying conclusion. Love how it can be bittersweet but still fulfilling and feel like a very good, complete story. I would love it if Weir revisits this plot, possibly in future generations

I would absolutely love to see Earth get to learn more about the Eridians! I imagine that one planet or the other would launch a deep space expedition to meet the other, either Eridians with their greater resources due to less catastrophe from the astrophage, or Earth once they have the means to do so, since of course they would have such burning curiosity about what Dr. Ryland Grace discovered!

But my desire for more is because it's such an amazing story that has additional potential, but not because I feel the potential was underused or wasted. Weird nailed the story he was telling, and whether or not he has another one to tell as a sequel, this book is just exemplary. Five stars.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Grief, Suicide, and Medical content

Moderate: Alcohol and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Drug use, and Kidnapping

raichou's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Bisher habe ich mich relativ wenig für Sci-Fi interessiert, aber nachdem ich nur positives über dieses Buch gehört habe, konnte ich nicht widerstehen. 
Ich bin so froh, dass ich mich nicht von der Dicke habe abschrecken lassen. Es war so gut! 

Abgesehen von der Zusammenfassung, wusste ich nichts über die Geschichte und ich denke  dass war auch sehr gut so. Daher möchte ich auch niemandem etwas vorwegnehmen, sondern lest es gerne selber und lasst euch mitreißen. 

Aber Rocky war so putzig! Ich habe ihn so ins Herz geschlossen und als er fast gestorben ist, war ich erschüttert. Auch der Abschied als sie sich getrennt haben, tat mir innerlich weh. Dafür können sie jetzt zusammen alt werden. 
Und sogar Adrian hat auf Rocky gewartet :)

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, and Animal cruelty

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Drug use and Animal cruelty

kellyurban's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Death

Minor: Animal cruelty, War, Cancer, Grief, Kidnapping, and Misogyny