Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

7 reviews

sarahschwehn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Pedophilia, Grief, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Slavery, Vomit, War, Violence, Abandonment, Cancer, Genocide, Gun violence, and Infertility

reenelou's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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 wanted it to be more gorey. 

There was so much exposition at the begining and it felt like the last part of the book was rushed, the horror element was more implied than gratuitous and gd I wanted to witness the true horror of the surgery, hasta'akala, emillo underwent. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Mental illness, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Child death, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Blood, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Animal death, and Torture

julesloyola's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Violence, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery

Minor: Antisemitism, Car accident, and Child abuse

inkfingers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

The Sparrow is a first contact story set in the near future. The characters are well developed and engaging, and while some of the plot points or discussions may seem like rabbit trails or odd distractions, by the end they form a coherent thematic picture. The linguistic and anthropological discussions are interesting and reminded me a bit of Ursula K. Le Guin’s sci fi. 

The in media res framing effectively cuts between the horrible aftermath and the exuberant pre-disaster lives of the crew. Knowing the tragedy from the first paragraph does not make it harder to get attached to the fleshed out crew, but it did make every misfortune and miscommunication even more tense.

The putting together of the mission and crew does feel extremely convenient, but the characters consider the pieces falling together a sign of divine intervention but question it later as things go wrong. As long as the reader is willing to meet the book on its own terms and see it as a kind of eucatastrophe, it does reward the suspension of disbelief.

The horrible end of the mission is hinted at from the beginning, and a careful reader may guess what went wrong, but Russell holds the whole truth back until the last fifty pages of the book when Emilio finally tells the Father General what happened. Then the catastrophe plays out at breakneck speed and earns 80% of the novel’s tag warnings in quick succession so heed those even if you aren’t very squeamish.

This book is a discussion of faith and suffering in the league of Silence by Shūsaku Endō, offering no easy answers about a crisis of faith and God’s silence. 
The last fifty pages of this book laid me out like a Victorian lady taken to her bed with a dreadful illness, and I expect I won’t recover until I read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Rape

Moderate: Violence and Vomit

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, and Medical content

lesbegays's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Excrement, Medical content, Murder, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Car accident, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, and Xenophobia

skupdawg426's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

This book was so hard to read, and yet left me with a sense of hope - as dark as it is, it is a celebration of humanity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Drug use, Violence, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

jersy's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This manages to include cosy character interactions as well as moments that break you as well as the characters you've gotten to love without the shift feeling inappropriate. That said, the majority of the book is the former, with glimpses into the future telling you of the looming doom. One might say that there is too much time spend on setup with too little time on the actual first contact story, but while I would have loved to have more page time on the planet - which it was absolutely fascinating - the setup was both needed to get attached to the characters and absolutely delightful.
While I cared for some characters more than for others (which mostly correlated to how much time was dedicated to them prior to the space mission) it's an awesome cast in general and everyone was pretty unique but also believable.
This book is heavy on themes, most importantly the source and impact of religious believes, sexuality and the complexity of interpersonal relationships, which are all present both in discussions as well as in the plot. However, I'm not sure if I like the ending: maybe it was just too much for me or maybe it just didn't handle the topic all too well, either. I will have to process that further. 
As a whole, this was a great read: emotional, interesting, intelligent and compelling. For a few readers it might be too slow and not enough about space exploration, though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Child death, Death, and Vomit

Minor: Child abuse