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Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'
Animal Vegetable Criminal: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
7 reviews
daniellekat's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.75
This started off strong, but by the halfway mark things started to roll downhill. There were lots of interesting little nuggets along the way, but generally the author centered herself within the content too much. The theme fell apart in the second half of the book and Roach took on a judgmental stance that was off-putting as a reader. I think the writing was ok. It was a bit too descriptive for me but I can see how her writing creates an approachable feel for non-fiction. There were some sections that ranged from fairly biased to down right ignorant that the author never acknowledged (especially as a middle-aged western white woman in foreign places and cultures) that made me question Roach's credibility on a whole. I might give this author another chance, I've heard better things about her earlier publications, but I can't say I would recommend this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Colonisation and Forced institutionalization
sr_marshrat's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I picked this up expecting laugh-out-loud-funny: thieving primates and avian vandals. There's a little of that, but Roach also covers the heavier side of human-animal conflict. Roach never makes-light of or trivializes the scenarios she spotlights, recognizing that the non-human animals are rarely at fault, while also handling human upset with deft sensitivity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail
koplomps's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
2.5
A very interesting and informative read, but also so slow, and filled with so much unrelated chatter about somebody's clothes etc.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
another_dahlia's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Excrement, Murder, Animal death, Child death, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
meganpbennett's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Fuzz was my first Mary Roach book, and it's an interesting look at animals who break human laws. I found that the writing was very much aimed at fiction readers, and was much more pop than science. I also found the emphasis on how to kill various "problem" animals unnecessary and would have like far more history than the book gave.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Vomit
schnaucl's review against another edition
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This is the second book of Mary Roach's that I've read, and like before I found her prose to be very readable.
This was an interesting book but also a sad one. I hadn't realized how rarely relocation works out well for the animal being relocated and in fact may ultimately be crueler euthanasia. Of course, that was a chapter focusing on a specific species in a specific place, so maybe that's not universally true but there are lines in other chapters that made me think it often doesn't work as well as the public would like to believe.
Much of the book was focused on the United States but there were a few chapters that took place in other countries and it was interesting to see how other cultures reacted to "nuisance" animals. There was also a chapter on dangerous plants which focused on castor beans and one that focused on falling trees.
There were lots of interesting tidbits on things like the forensics of animal attacks, and how good prey animals are at judging distance and speed for predators. But my main takeaway is that humans are really good at causing problems for other species and then often make those problems worse when they try and solve it. Or else we're completely ineffective and can't change anything. I don't think there were any chapters involving animals where humans were able to make a positive long term difference (although maybe the one about deer will turn out that way). Obviously there are cases where humans helped bring species back from the verge of extinction but usually after we put them there in the first place (and that wasn't covered in the book since it didn't fit the topic).
This was an interesting book but also a sad one. I hadn't realized how rarely relocation works out well for the animal being relocated and in fact may ultimately be crueler euthanasia. Of course, that was a chapter focusing on a specific species in a specific place, so maybe that's not universally true but there are lines in other chapters that made me think it often doesn't work as well as the public would like to believe.
Much of the book was focused on the United States but there were a few chapters that took place in other countries and it was interesting to see how other cultures reacted to "nuisance" animals. There was also a chapter on dangerous plants which focused on castor beans and one that focused on falling trees.
There were lots of interesting tidbits on things like the forensics of animal attacks, and how good prey animals are at judging distance and speed for predators. But my main takeaway is that humans are really good at causing problems for other species and then often make those problems worse when they try and solve it. Or else we're completely ineffective and can't change anything. I don't think there were any chapters involving animals where humans were able to make a positive long term difference (although maybe the one about deer will turn out that way). Obviously there are cases where humans helped bring species back from the verge of extinction but usually after we put them there in the first place (and that wasn't covered in the book since it didn't fit the topic).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Animal death
tinytrashqueen's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Medical content
Moderate: Vomit, Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail
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