Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Toad by Katherine Dunn

5 reviews

jcinf's review

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Some parts I really enjoyed reading. Other parts I found myself wondering what the point was. Gross descriptions for lots of sections — specially regarding her eating and unnecessary hurt of animals. 

(TW on animal abuse.)

About halfway through I skipped 15 pages or so bc she spent so much time talking about eating. For no reason. 

Sally was really not likeable to me… at all. She was rude and nasty to people she called her friends. I mean we can all be rude sometimes, but I found myself wondering if she even liked her friends at all. And she went on bullying someone for 3-4 pages. It was cruel and made me not root for her. That said, I didn’t care what happened to her. It was Carlotta I cared about most.

Not great, but I pushed through because I didn’t want my first book of the year to be DNF. 

Overall, I can see why people enjoyed it, but it was largely a miss for me. 

Really well written in places, though. Very descriptive — for better or for worse lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood

Moderate: Child death

gabedon's review

dark reflective tense slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Drug use

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Excrement, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Vomit

owlribbon's review

dark funny

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

emily_stimmel's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, and Animal death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Animal cruelty

carolinefaireymeese's review

dark funny sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Her sentences are unreal. I couldn’t put this book down for the Sam/Carlotta plot, but the frame narrative had excellent writing about self-protection, stagnation, regret, isolation… Dunn herself is impressive, but the editorial process of publishing an unpublished novel after the author passes away was fascinating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Child death