Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

46 reviews

punkrockingnerd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

As a person who loves dolphins? Horrified. As a person who has difficultly with gore? Horrified. As a fan of mermaid and/or siren cryptids? I'm a little excited! But overall, horrified

Ms. Mira, I reject your reality about Twitter, Cecil, and Kearney AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Violence, Cursing, Medical trauma, Death, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Drug use, Cannibalism, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Vomit, and Animal death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Stalking

jessicastaylor's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was a really, really good book. It focuses on the horror aspect of mermaids/sirens and that was a fun spin to see on things. My only real complaint was that it ended really fast. It all got wrapped up in almost a chapter at the end, and then that was it. I know it was quite a long book already, but the ending just felt rushed to me. That said, I still loved it. The rep was fantastic, the storyline was engaging, the writing style was immaculate. Highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement and Grief

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

shadestate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Loved the premise and most of the book. The ending felt a bit rushed, but I think that's because she meant to write a third book to finalise those open ended threads. Loved the world building. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Ableism, Death, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Confinement

Minor: Emotional abuse

helliepad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Horror novels are so nice. I have decided early on in my reading journey that science fiction was not to my taste but books like this make me question otherwise. What an amazing thriller! I have been scared since the beginning, and capsule stories like this always intrigued me (although the Melusine is, admittedly, a capsule in the sense that the Eiffel tower was considered a nail). 

I love that the characters on that ship were human and had conflicting views and opinions and goals. I liked that there were deaf main characters, that there were scientists and bosses with chronic pain, that there were autistic main characters, and savage killers who loved deeply and truly, and that there were shades of horrible people to contrast the shades of horrible monsters. As much as the story is a horror from the start, and you go into reading it knowing people will not survive, the story itself doesn't lose respect for its characters and their goals. They did their jobs, they were eaten, or they were killed, or they survived, for a given definition of the word. They weren't mocked or humiliated by the narrative.

I almost gave it a 4.75 since the ending was so abrupt- the story goes from a jam-packed two days of action to skipping one day, after the rescue, and with vague sense as to what happened to the rest of the characters. I personally like getting closures while reading books, but I figured I could overlook it, as the rest of the book was so delightfully written and executed. Anyway, I can't wait to read more of Seanan McGuire's writing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Death

Minor: Chronic illness, Biphobia, and Ableism

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Grief, Violence, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Medical content, and Ableism

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Mental illness, and Confinement

Minor: Biphobia

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, and Alcohol

shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

"'It's matching the sounds made by a human throat while completely submerged,' said Jillian. 'It shouldn't be able to do that. Human speech underwater doesn't sound like human speech. It sounds like something dead and drowned and distorted. Whether it's thinking about the adjustments or doing them automatically, it's matching something that shouldn't be able to match. That's incredible.'"
Can we say "perfect summer-to-autumn transition read"? I think we can. This book had just the right amount of summer (oceans, marine life, yachts, etc.) and autumn (mystery, suspense, death, etc.) vibes. This book did take a bit of time to pick up with the modern-day story, but once it did, it was so good. (Although, I will say the end of the epilogue confused me a bit. I had to read the last two chapters before the epilogue a couple of times, but even then I was confused. I think it was just the wording of it.) I did have a few issues with the book, which will be hidden due to spoilers. This book was, overall, a fun read despite my issues with it. And it was so interesting seeing all of the perspectives - not just humans, but mermaids and dolphins as well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Ableism, Medical content, and Cursing

Issue One: The. Dolphins. Blackwell's reasoning was sound, but even if we were able to communicate with dolphins, I don't think his logic applies to non-humans, no matter what the dolphins "agreed to." Blackwell may not have "intended" to send them to their deaths by having them go to the mermaids, but that possibility (and eventuality) should have been considered and been at the forefront 24/7 considering what the mermaids are capable of, as seen on the Artagatis. Issue Two: The Abneys. I know there are people like this. But I will never not like people like this. I just loathed them with my entire being in each of their scenes. Issue Three: Killing off one of two deaf characters. I don't know what's been said about this by deaf readers, and either way, I'll let their comments (whatever and wherever those are) be loudest. While it was nice seeing that for a presentation, I don't think the deaf character should have been killed off.

A small part of me wanted Jillian and Theo to get back together after this, but I knew that was more of a pipe dream for them rather than an actual possibility. You can't always get past the hurdles in a relationship.

serinalovesreading's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

jurizprudence's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

mermaids—sirens are not nice and they like to eat humans ok got it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Confinement and Animal cruelty

ladylothlorien'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

How could I resist a book about killer mermaids? For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. It was slow in places and there was a lot of repetition of the same information that seemed excessive (I get it when something is repeated because you may have forgotten about it from several chapters back, but this was more like long descriptive paragraphs emphasizing the same thing that long descriptive paragraphs emphasized a few chapters back). And I felt like it sort of just ended.

I thought that there would be more of a confrontation with the mermaid queen and she just sort of went away because of the bright lights.  Where was my "get away from her you bitch" moment? It sort of felt like the story was building up to that because I figured out about the mermaid queen's existence before the characters did, but maybe I was just too ahead of the curve?

Overall, though, I did really enjoy the book. It was super tense and it really made me want to keep reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death