Reviews tagging 'Grief'

A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

29 reviews

euphemiajo's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Sexism, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcohol

lisavandonselaar's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Grief, Miscarriage, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

bitter_critter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Animal death

Minor: Religious bigotry

mothmania's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Animal death

Moderate: Violence, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Colonisation, Gore, and Death

Minor: Kidnapping, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Classism, Drug use, and Pregnancy

lunep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Violence, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Blood, Death, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Animal death, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism, Body horror, Death of parent, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Rape, Colonisation, Cursing, and Alcohol

nofys's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage and Grief

foolzerrand's review against another edition

Wasnt for me- My bad- I wasnt expecting the ending- shouldve checked trigger warnings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

her husband is stabbed to death at the end of the book

readandfindout's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.0

Style/writing: 4 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 4 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Death, Animal death, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Classism, and Miscarriage

Minor: Pregnancy

madzie's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Brennan mashes the voices of early English women writers like Austen and the Brontes with scientific notes and realistic fantasy. She excels at worldbuilding and seamlessly fits dragons into Victorian Europe. Her world of dragons is sensical and easy to follow. The dragons feel very real, and you can imagine being a part of this world. However, while Brennan thrives in her exploration of dragons, she leaves me questioning other parts of her world and how it differs from our own historical one. Often, Brennan's exploration of sexism is intriguing, as it is central to the story, but falls short, not incorporating the entire picture, even illustrating that women can only be strong if they show masculine traits, which seems to go against the same theme she is attempting to portray. Other themes follow suit, often making a good attempt at deep ideas but leaving me with questions about the whole picture, especially from a historical perspective.

However, Brennan creates a nicely written plot with a good twist at the end. Throughout, I got bored with the lack of details. Although seemingly purposeful due to attempting to draw in scientific writing, it leaves me again wanting more and never really feeling like part of the story. Perhaps more of a success is her incorporation of Victorian writing, which echoes history while still being accessible to modern audiences, as well as less pretentious. Occasionally, I felt the sentence variety was lacking, especially in action scenes. Lady Trent herself is an intriguing character, who did leave me feeling for her by the end of the novel. Overall, I felt like the book stayed in the middle ground, perhaps rising above for other readers, especially those more interested in scientific explanations and writings over story flow and details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Xenophobia, Animal death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Classism, Grief, and Miscarriage

ophycore'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, Gun violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Death of parent