Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

16 reviews

clarabooksit's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

While this isn’t a go-to genre for me, I liked the many threads to this story and how Tokarczuk wove them together. There’s a lot of good story and character crafting here. However, the ending ruined it for me:

not only was it predictable, but the lengthy, detailed description of exactly how and why the murderer killed the people they did was unnecessary and annoying. There are enough layers to the story that just a brief reveal of why they did it would’ve brought the threads together nicely, no need to spoon-feed the reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Animal death, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Sexism

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

drive your plow over the bones of the dead is an incisive, atmospheric, and well-written read that isnt necessarily dark but deals w/ darkness, and is a powerful, revealing condemnation of human hypocrisy towards animals.

this book's filled w/ innumerable observations and insight abt life & death, the human condition, and animal treatment, some thought-provoking, and others sardonically true and darkly humorous, although the extensive discussion abt astrology isnt rly my thing. the characters are imbued w/ life and color even amid the bleakness of the landscape, and the main character's developing relationships w/ her increasingly close circle are subtly poignant. weirdly, the twist at the end shouldnt have been surprising, yet it still jolted me w/ the abruptness of its revelation.

needless to say, one cant talk abt this book w/o mentioning tokarczuk's biting denunciations of human treatment of animals, the hypocrisy and numbing, desensitized acceptance of it all. they're bewilderingly powerful and persuasive, though in hindsight i wish some discussion went into past necessity of certain aspects of this animal-related issue.

a surprisingly rewarding - though occasionally droning and weirdly paced - novel that invites a second reading and makes me interested in checking out tokarczuk's other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Sexism, and Blood

Minor: Infidelity and Medical content

uranaishi's review

adventurous funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Murder

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Ableism, Medical content, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual content, Body shaming, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Vomit

samvansam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Murder, Grief, and Chronic illness

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Medical content, Gun violence, and Vomit

sneako's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

theoldestbennetsister's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

I adored a lot in this - the setting, the slow-burn mystery. The writing is excellent. But am I the only one who was put off by that one chapter near the beginning? You know, the one with the questionable head-canon on autism that's quoted in all the reviews for some reason? Maybe I'm missing something and/or something was lost in translation, it just made me uncomfortable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Sexism