Reviews with content warning for Death - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

SO good!

This is a literary mystery set in a secluded village in the south of Poland. The protagonist is an older woman who is a hobby astrologer and likes animals more than humans. When people in the area turn up dead under mysterious circumstances, she has her own theory of what is going on, but no one is taking her seriously.

I actually wasn't expecting the mystery plot and was pleasantly surprised by the direction the story took. Loved the protagonist and her point of view, so interesting. Loved the quirky side characters and their friendship dynamics. Liked the themes of the book and the writing a lot. Also, the ending worked really well for me. The tone of the book is rather serious and reflective, but it has a subtle humor that I really liked.

The only thing I didn't enjoy were some of the monologues throughout the book. They were too abstract and too long for my taste.

Content Warnings

lizzieinmt's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

This books as extremely well written, even with the translation into English the prose were powerful and full of emotion. While none of the main characters are exactly loveable they win you over and I loved the moral delemma it left you in. As a vegetarian I found this a great look into how some people view animals and how much it hurts not to be valued. Really interesting read.

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foulone's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

1.0

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horizonous's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Great sense of place, interesting main character, but I just didn't care about the horoscope passages or William Blake's poetry and to me it was also very obvious where the story is going. However, this won't be my last book by Olga Tokarczuk.

Content Warnings

cuddlygryphon's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-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

5.0

Content Warnings

booksjessreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

I really loved this book and honestly was such a mysterious and well written plot line. There is a morally ambiguous narrator and there are so many different themes in the book which are explored. The author has evidently taken care to do a lot of the research into the astrology and other medical content in the book because they are written in much depth. I thought the ending was completely unexpected and gave me tingles when I found out what had happened.

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