Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Una Educacion Mortal by Naomi Novik

57 reviews

pvid's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Oftentimes the world-building interrupts/slows down the action in a way that got a bit boring after some time. But the world is interesting, if very dark and violent, and I liked how Novik explores the moral implications of the system that’s set up to deal with that violence. I liked the characters a lot, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy and Murder

Minor: Vomit and Animal death

koplomps's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Classism

evbyrd's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Violence, Murder, Confinement, Cannibalism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, and Death

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Classism, Bullying, Animal death, and Gore

Minor: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Bullying, Body horror, Islamophobia, and Cultural appropriation

teklalind's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This is the third book I've read by Novik and I still can't tell if I really enjoy her writing. Clearly, I do enough to keep trying her books! I have definitely seen her improve especially with character relationships and development that I'm happy to see after Uprooted. I do intend to read the rest of this series but I still struggle with her writing style as it just doesn't feel polished.

I enjoyed this book, but it lacks exposition or a coherent explanation of the world-building. What you learn is fascinating, I find the school's structure interesting. I found myself stumbling around trying to remember all of the names thrown at me, not just the characters but also of the various monsters because there are so many different types thrown in. Usually, an introduction includes a description of it but it's rushed in while the main character is fighting it. Maybe it's intended for the audience to think on their feet as much as the characters have to, but instead, I found myself just flailing and making all the monsters just blobs because I couldn't distinguish them from one another. I wish there had been an index in the back of the book with descriptions of the "mals" (the monsters) so I could keep track, let alone an index with the names of the characters thrown around with their rushed description.

It seemed like Novik was trying to create a diverse cast of characters except she threw them all to the side most of the time because most of the book was about El, the MC, and sometimes Orion Lake. A lot of the cast of characters could have been trimmed to give other important ones more time but Novik really tried to sell how diverse the school was and ended up just creating a massive hole in character development. Maybe that happens in the sequel!

Overall, I did enjoy the book though. I wouldn't compare it to Harry Potter at all but I realize people will always compare a magical school to HP despite the fact that magical schools in fantasy existed before HP and continue to after but I digress. It has a darker sense where Novik tries to pick apart the class differences between students but ignores the racial differences that could've been a major influence but the attempts she did make at critical thinking about race were not well received so maybe it's good she didn't try. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Blood

Briefly mentioned the sacrifice of animals. Another brief mention of a human sacrifice and cannibalism for magic. It is not described in detail and is not dwelled upon.

MC is attacked with a knife by the cannibal and she bleeds from a gut wound but he doesn't injure her any further. The fight scene is over quickly after

beccaand's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Child death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Murder and Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

jaedia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Classism, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit

Minor: Grief, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

sapphicsoilscientist's review against another edition

dark slow-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? Yes

2.5

This book is Harry Potter meets Hunger Games meets My Immortal (probably).
The main character is terribly annoying for the first half of the book and not at all lovable, but the side characters are decent. The magic system could use a few more details, and the book overall could have used another round of editing. (Seriously, are YA authors not given editors or enough time to edit? But at the same time, this was published by Temeraire Ltd, which is Novak's own company so there shouldn't have been a rush.) If you can get through the first 60% of the book it picks up significantly. The sequel audiobook doesn't have any wait time, so I'm going to listen to it, but I probably wouldn't bother if there was, if that helps at all. EDIT: Lol absolutely not. She's annoying annoying me again and all that hard earned character development just went down the drain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, and Animal death

readingelli's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Animal death, Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent