Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

B. J. Harrison Reads Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

164 reviews

herringgulls's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

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Takes a while to get into because the narration style is so dense, but the second half of the book may be better than the first.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism

papaya_'s review against another edition

2.0

challenging tense medium-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

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I definitely do not understand why this is considered to be a romance novel. It's not.

I found Wuthering Heights to be incredibly difficult and unpleasant to read. Emily Brontë definitely succeeded in creating horrible unlikable characters. I was also deeply sickened by the violence and some of the descriptions of cruelty, especially against animals. 
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence

kjboldon's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark medium-paced

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Emily had a plan for this book but even after several readings, I'm not sure what it was. But it was precise and high minded, however debased her characters got. This one is definitely not for those who need a likes le character. Did she carry the Byronic ideal to its logical, ironic, conclusion?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol

evgeorge's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

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Violent, abusive, harsh, dark. A love story? no thank you

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Classism

bxnnny's review against another edition

1.0

dark sad

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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this was such a slog to get through. this writing style is both so boring and so overly dramatic. just about every character was detestable and when they weren't, they were in love with someone so obviously detestable that i was annoyed and frustrated nearly the entire time i read this. i don't understand why anyone loved catherine sr. as much as they did when she was overtly manipulative, selfish, and instigative.

her dying literally halfway through the book seemingly in childbirth when there was not a single hint to her being pregnant, even when she had a doctor checking in on her constantly confused me so much and caught me by such surprise that i had to reread the passage a few times just to be sure i read it right. it just made no sense how that even happened without anyone knowing or even suspecting she was pregnant. especially when it starts out that she's faking her illness initially for attention and to manipulate everyone to give her what she wants.

i did not understand catherine sr. and heathcliffe's obsession with each other when it seemed that they rarely even had any time together between being forbidden to speak to/spend time with each other, being mad at one another, or heathcliffe just straight up disappearing for years.

heathcliffe's obsession with her made even less sense to me after she died and was honestly so disturbing. he dug up her grave!!! what do you even mean!!! his behaviour throughout this entire book was so revolting and violating.

i also could not understand why catherine jr. liked linton so much when he was just a big, whiny, manipulative baby! like what even is the attraction there at all? all these characters were so unreasonably attached and unwaveringly loyal to the most insufferable people and i just didn't get it. it was truly so frustrating. also, heathcliffe holding such a crazy and intense grudge against the people who wronged him for their and his entire life, so much so that he holds the grudge against their ENTIRE bloodline and makes it his life's mission to ruin all of their lives and disrespect their wishes in even death is WILD. what a fucking loser. also, how are you going to have whole ass characters with dialogue that is so indecipherable and incomprehensible to any person on earth that you have to have an actual glossary to translate it for the reader??? that isn't a language, by the way! the book is bad, argue with the wall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent

many characters are manipulative and narcissistic. the relationships are toxic and often times abusive. a male character has a strong and strange obsession with a female character. there are a couple mentions and descriptions of grave-digging.

evgeorge's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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If you have been abused, have experience with violent, neglectful alcoholic or controlling behavior consider reading something else. This a horror story of obsession, violence, the legacy of family trauma, alcoholism and abuse. Heathcliff is a nightmare model of coercive control. What he and Catherine have is not love it is passion, obsession and mutual distruction. They and everyone around them suffer. This story has influenced women for generations to believe that this is what love looks like.  A romance. A love story. No. It is beautifully written horror story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Classism

lucy3000's review against another edition

2.5

dark sad tense 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: Yes

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The copious amount of abuse was a bit too much for me. Made the book hard to read at times. Also not happy that

Heathcliff had a peaceful death at the end. I hated that guy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal cruelty

sarah_zaffiro's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad

Loveable characters: No

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honestly not sure why people love this book so much.. or why Heathcliff is as romanticized as he is; hella problematic person. Also we’re just okay with first cousins marrying each other as well ? 
It’s an easy read & has fairly good pacing, but I also found it difficult to ascertain which character (Lockwood or Nelly) was speaking in the first person since so much of the story is told from Nelly’s point of view.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence

Moderate: Death, Incest, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Sexism

fran_gc9's review against another edition

4.75

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Qué libro más raro pero me ha gustado mucho, no le doy 5 estrellas porque me ha costado un poco engancharme. Me encanta que sea una conversación entre la criada y un extraño. Algunas escenas son realmente incómodas y me sorprende que una mujer escribiera así en esa época (ahora entiendo por qué tuvo que usar un pseudónimo masculino). Mis personajes favs son Hareton, Edgar y Dean. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping

chelly_reads's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective slow-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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Gaslighting