Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

8 reviews

jedore's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.25

“You know what’s the most terrifying thing about admitting that you’re in love?…You are just naked. You put yourself in harm’s way and you lay down all your defenses. No clothes, no weapons. Nowhere to hide. Completely vulnerable. The only thing that makes it tolerable is to believe the other person loves you back and that you can trust him not to hurt you.”

This is a captivating science fiction novel that intertwines deep themes, like love, faith, humanity, and the unknown. The story follows a Jesuit priest, Emilio Sandoz, and his eclectic team of scientists and scholars on a mission to make first contact with an alien civilization on the planet Rakhat. The narrative is structured in two timelines, one detailing the mission’s hopeful beginnings and the other unraveling the tragic aftermath, which keeps readers engaged and chomping at the bit to understand the full picture.

This may very well be my very first true science fiction book! I’m not typically a fan of sci-fi, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying this one. The blend of speculative fiction with profound philosophical questions made it a compelling read.

I was initially apprehensive about the religious aspect of the book, given its heavy focus on Jesuit priests. However, Mary Doria Russell handles the religious themes objectively and the story remains balanced by her inclusion of both non-religious and Jewish characters who are integral to the plot. The religious characters are portrayed as complex humans, not as dogmatic zealots trying to convert others, which I very much appreciated. This approach made the interactions between religious and non-religious characters feel authentic and respectful.

There were so many fascinating facets to this story. The book delves into Catholicism, linguistics, alien culture, interpersonal relationships, sanctioned body mutilation, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Boredom is never an option! 

Character development is fantastic. Each character is given a distinct voice and personality, making them feel real and relatable. The description of the alien species is really well-done. Russell’s vivid imagery allowed me to easily visualize the aliens and their environment.

I highly recommend "The Sparrow" to anyone interested in an intelligent and multifaceted story…whether you're a fan of science fiction or not!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Grief, Medical content, Slavery, Colonisation, Confinement, Dysphoria, Body horror, Torture, Genocide, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Cannibalism, Abandonment, Child death, Chronic illness, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug use, Police brutality, and Gore

brookiebridge's review against another edition

dark sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

One of my favorite books of all time. The pacing is the best I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t put the book down and finished it, sobbing, at 3 in the morning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Rape, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Body horror, Slavery, Cannibalism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Torture

The book builds up to the reveal of why the main character survived and what happened to him.

He watched as alien children were killed and eaten, and his friends died trying to stand up for them. He was then forced to also eat the alien children to survive, him and his friend underwent medical disfigurement of their hands and his friend died as a result. He was then sold to a brothel where he was raped repeatedly, and accidentally killed a child who had come to try to help him, thinking the child was a rapist at first. He is repeatedly confined to small spaces and isolated. Half of the story is him being investigated by his superiors, who don’t know he was raped but believe he committed murder and had illicit sex, since he is a priest. He has severe ptsd but the investigation forces him to confront his past.

madibee's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Gore, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Miscarriage

bobin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I had a lot of emotions about this book. Ultimately, I didn't like it as I felt the social structure of aliens was too similar to humans and not well developed, and I think the pacing was a little off and the "gotcha" moment was unsurprising. this is much m9re an exploration of human morals than it is a conversation about aliens- the aliens were almost a background character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror and Suicidal thoughts

conqueringsquid's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Rape, Blood, Chronic illness, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

smallredboy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

This is one of those novels that as soon as you finish reading them you will know they will stick with you for a long, long time. I don't even know how to say anything that I want to say. But incredible book. Read it.

Edit a few days after this fact: This is a complex book. It's very much Jewish, even when it deals largely with Jesuits, as it gives you a thousand questions about God (including the good ol' "if God exists, why do horrible things happen?" question) but provides exactly zero answers (maybe half an answer), which is very much a Jewish thing to do. The characters are alive, almost too alive, enough for the foregone conclusion to hurt even before it happens. The way it deals with trauma (mental, physical and sexual) is realistic and cathartic, believable; I feel for Emilio deeply. While I don't know much about science, most of it felt pretty realistic, and I absolutely adored the focus on anthropology and linguistics, as that I understand some more of. The non-linear narrative makes it better, in my opinion; the sinking dread having an understanding of what's going to happen while hope is still high in the air is incredible.

It's a very heavy book, with a thousand trigger warnings to be given. But if you can read it, I really do recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: War

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

vimesbootstheory's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

I really loved this, what a beautiful story. I was hesitant to pick it up, as I'm not always sure how to make my way through an explicitly religious story, but there's room for a lot of different positions on theism in this book (at least re: Christian theism). The core characters were all extraordinarily loveable, especially Anne and Emilio. Having recently finished Asimov's first Foundation book, my enjoyment of The Sparrow felt very illustrative of my preference for reading real human stories about human connection over hard science fact. Who gives a shit that very little about the Jesuit mission to Rakhat makes much sense? We got found family bonding on an asteroid and that's way more entertaining. I will say, knowing in advance (and this is not a spoiler) that everyone but Emilio dies did keep me more at-arm's-length from the characters than I would have been otherwise, but I wouldn't necessarily have preferred that Russell write it otherwise. The characters and their interactions still carry the book. It seemed to me that The Sparrow is making a point about colonialism at the end, without a lot of ground being laid for it in advance, outside of just knowing that it was a visiting-alien-culture story and that's going to be unavoidable. It's possible I missed the groundwork earlier in the story, though I feel like I had been waiting for it, at least at some level. Also, did not care for the narrative's preachiness re: sex work, I'd feel bad for any sex worker who finds fulfillment in their job reading how hard Russell drops an anvil on sex work = bad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Gore

Moderate: Child death