Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

22 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Dysphoria, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cultural appropriation

Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

qqjj's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Torture, Vomit, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

mementomoriiv's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Toxic friendship

emelye's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

teaganme's review

adventurous challenging dark funny informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

A bit heavy, but mostly in all the right ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Car accident, Gaslighting, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Death, Classism, and Animal death

themorsecode's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

A pageturner. Liked the multi perspective approach and there was some spiky satire on all sides, ending didn't quite land for me but I was hooked to the last page

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Murder, Death, Violence, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Car accident

sapphotoni's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, and Car accident

knkoch's review

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.5

I liked this a lot! It's a great literary thriller, and I ripped through it. The plot, and central conflict, is compelling and definitely not simple. Sure, there's right and wrong, but no easy solutions or clear-cut heroes. I liked the way each character was elusive; I never had a firm grasp, and thus judgement, on any of them. I enjoyed the allusions to Macbeth, especially as this wasn't a direct retelling or reimagining. I suppose this felt more in conversation with that play and its themes of political power, manipulation, gamesmanship, and the way those larger schemes compromise human psychology, personal morality, and integrity. This felt just like Macbeth in the sense of huge power struggles (with enormous consequence) being played out between just a handful of crucial individuals. Yet technology plays such a big part in this too, set in our current industrial-dystopian era, very far from the medieval setting of Macbeth. Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play I read as an adult and felt real things for. I remember the power and heaviness of that story shocked me, demonstrating for the first time why these four hundred year old works are still so widely read and relevant. Birnam Wood makes me think I should reread it again soon. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gun violence, and Gore

isabellew27's review

adventurous mysterious slow-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

2.75

Well-written but way too much detailed character development and too little plot development/action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Classism, Toxic friendship, and Drug use

corvidcorvid's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Slow to get going, at many times long-winded, sometimes preachy, often condescending of the characters, who were practically caricatures, but insightful. I didn't care for the ending, so I'm just going to imagine it differently. 

The creepiest aspect of the book, imo, was the infiltration of privacy with technology that's nearly impossible for laypeople to recognize. I gasped and physically cringed when

Robert revealed how he knew who Mira was, and when he usurped Mira's phone. Mira, and the rest of Birnam Wood, had NO questions at him having deposited the initial $10k directly into her bank account to demonstrate that he was legit. That was the linchpin for me, where I want to believe I would have nope'd out.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail