Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Terror by Dan Simmons

4 reviews

waterlogged's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Very slow but never felt too slow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Death, Violence, Cannibalism, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Torture, Bullying, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Racism, Vomit, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, and Racial slurs

athryn's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This was thoroughly enjoyable. I really enjoyed the historical detail, although of course more info came out after this book was written, so some stuff is a little inaccurate, but that's perfectly fine too.

Overall a great story with a lot of twists and turns. I actually felt cold reading this. It's sometimes a bit of a bummer, but also I love seeing hubris take people, especially colonial era Brits.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Bullying, Cannibalism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, and Gun violence

domreadsb00ks's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The real life Franklin expedition sailed off into the Arctic waters to doscover the Northeest passage. No one knows what happened to them. There are some Inuit accounts of crazed white men stumbling across the arctic wastelands, some even resorting to cannibalism, but no solid evidence. 
The Terror reimagines the experience of these 150 men, all told expertly through a handful of key characters. Each chapter begins with the date and location of the character at that point, and a nice detail is that the location and date gradually become more unclear and then completely unknown towards the end of the book, and the end of the crew.
All the traditional perils of the Arctic are here; the ice freezing the ships into place and tearing them apart; the cold wind turning men's noses black with frostbite and scurvy induced by the stale food. But there is something else out here. From the first page it is clear that something else stalks the men, larger and more intelligent than anything encountered before.
And yet it turns out that not even a genuine monster is more terrifying than the human mind pushed past its breaking point. The cast of this book are  well-crafted; you genuinely want them to survive. 
Certain scenes genuinely made me so tense waiting for what happened next, and others made me genuinely sad and frustrated with events both out of and in the characters' control.
Really recommend this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Racism, Alcoholism, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Grief, and Mental illness

booksmithscientist's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Medical content