Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Dune by Frank Herbert

171 reviews

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-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

4.5

Ok but this lived up to the hype!! Frank Herbert very clearly had Tolkien-level worldbuilding skills, and much less random exposition. I'm definitely not smart enough to pick up on all of the themes at play here, but the edition I read had an Afterword by Brian Herbert that helped explain some things. A banger.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Child death, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape and Slavery

wxshwa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: War, Murder, and Death of parent

luminifera's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.5

I find some of the characters very annoying for many different reasons, but the worst for sure is Chani. She simply

has no personality outside of being Paul's love interest

, which is kind of outrageous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Murder, Slavery, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Physical abuse, War, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Xenophobia, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Genocide, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Vomit, Incest, Cursing, Gun violence, Medical content, and Miscarriage

It's about the colonization of a planet, and the main character is The Chosen One. Expect violence, war, and of course plenty of misogyny - this book is from the 1960s and was written by a man. Some things are simply offensive.

akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

I may try again but for now I am insanely bored. Life’s too short to deal with books that drag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: War

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

avie_j's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny

oustlangouste's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Child death

joan_zyaire's review against another edition

adventurous informative 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? Yes

3.5

Dune required heavy emotional back lifting for me go care about the characters, especially for Paul and his mother. I was surprised when I read the final page because I expected more. More character depth, more world building and yes, although this is the first book in the series, it didn't feel like it did a lot plot wise. I was intrigued about the politics and the Benne Gesserit mythos. This is the only reason why I will consider reading the other books. A majority of the story takes place on Arrakis but I didn't feel immersed on that planet. The timeskips didn't help with that. Perhaps the other Dune books go more into depth but this book was more of a setup. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, Pedophilia, and Xenophobia

dannilmp's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

2.75

While my rating of Dune isn't that high, I must admit that for a piece of sci-fi written so long ago this book certainly holds itself up well and through the test of time. Here we follow a complicated game of politics across multiple planets and factions while a young boy and his mother are just trying to survive Arrakis' harsh climate. 

The world building in this novel is superb, the politics, religion, factions, and planets are very well fleshed out and don't leave you wanting for much more information. If you have all of your wits about you when you start this book then I think you'll be able to keep up with the plot quite well. The touch of the passages from different sources before each chapter was a good addition as at times they revealed more than the reader yet knew, so it really got me thinking about certain characters or plot points throughout. 

On the other hand, I felt like the characters themselves were not given as much attention as the world around them, they felt very flat in comparision. At times I would have to re-read certain parts of the text to see if I had understood something and even then there were times I don't believe I had a full understanding, especially when it came to the politics plot points. So while the story and world were good, I think this book fell slightly on the delivery of those points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Death of parent

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Death of parent, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Rape and Slavery

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Death