Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

22 reviews

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Stalking, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Vomit

atringas's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

This novel contains multitudes. Truly hard to describe, and honestly I’m struggling to quantify my feels about it myself. Beautiful in its imagery, brutal in its realism, touching, mystical, realistic, exciting, slow, there is a bit of everything going on in “Boy Swallows Universe”.
The book truly reads almost more like a number of smaller novels together as it chronicles the life of Eli Bell, and is mostly stronger for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Xenophobia

camoo3032's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

1.75

Trent Dalton doesn't shy away from showing the darker bits of Australian society that we rarely get to see. Because this perspective is rarely shown, I would consider this book worth reading. I would warn fellow readers that this makes the book continuously confronting and it is certainly not a lighthearted read.
This provides the backdrop of a story that is far-fetched with descriptive writing that is quite abstract. I am sure there are people out there that would love this book but I found it was trying to be more profound than it actually is.
I also found that the female characters weren't as fully formed or complex as the male ones which is frustrating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

everythingemily97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Blood

ellen_nicholson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

georgiaknight's review against another edition

challenging mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Police brutality

slewi162's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Blood, and Alcohol

alicx_g's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Alcohol

sharyce's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

3.0

Overall this book wasn’t too bad, but there were just a few too many things that I didn’t like to give it a higher rating. The book took way to long for me to get into - I had to force myself to read the first half, many of the characters were unlikeable - especially Caitlyn Spies and her relationship with the protagonist Eli Bell, and although this book was written with a touch of magic realism, the whole ending just felt too unrealistic, causing the book as a whole to feel slightly disjointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Gun violence, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit

zoegrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Fabulous audiobook narrator.

I couldn't stop listening to this book. It can be quite a heavy read due to the nature of the content however Dalton guides the reader through the story with charm, hilarity and love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, and Blood