Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

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

11 reviews

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

dark funny slow-paced

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

4.0

As the main character and narrator of this darkly funny novel, Mrs. Duszejko steals the show.  A fierce old woman who lives alone in a house on a remote Polish plateau, she has a big personality as an eccentric astrologer, vegetarian, non-Catholic, and translator of William Blake.  She patrols the area surrounding her home daily and has a few, select friends.  After her neighbor, “Bigfoot,” is found dead, a series of deaths unfolds, but no one will hear her theories about stags and stars.  Ultimately, this is a story of a woman in a significant amount of grief.  Beata Poźniak’s narration is exemplary—just perfect.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Misogyny, Grief, and Death

Minor: Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Medical content

tjwolf's review

dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Alcohol, Misogyny, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

noahfence's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

yeah, so. prepare to enter the world of janina duszejko. like, really prepare. its not for the faint of heart.

i have never read anything quite like this book. it is a story that will question your perception of madness, animals, astrology and religion—and you will probably finish it with a very different view of the world.

the plot follows the story of the sickly, elderly woman janina duszejko and her life in a lonely polish village on the border of the czech republic. the book drags you along on her investigation into the strange, unsettling murders of several members of the town’s hunting society, filling you with intrigue, awe—and perhaps horror, depending on your attitude towards animals. do you treat them like they have souls, or not? are you willing to face their wrath?

drive your plow over the bones of the dead is everything i could ever ask for in a book. the weather is strange, the animals are vengeful, the stars are sentient. it is a beautifully dark exploration into feminism, animal rights and murder, and although at first it may just seem like the story of a lonely old women, the prose grips you by the throat and really doesn’t let you go. you will come away from the book wondering if your horoscope could show you how you will die, and if you should really continue eating meat.

drive your plow over the bones of the dead is a deliciously dark read. so go on—take the plunge. 🤭

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Chronic illness, Medical content, Sexism, Cursing, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny

rozmaran's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

freckled_frog_boi's review

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Damn.. i don’t really know how to feel about this book.

Idk if i liked or disliked it. It was new though, and I was really engrossed towards the end. I wish there was a bit more foreshadowing, but I guess with an unreliable narrator, they don’t have to tell us everything.

I think this is my first Polish Translated text, and I think some meaning escaped me, but overall I liked the book even if I had a love/hate relationship with the characters.

Beware! Fatphobia and Romaphobia are rampant. There’s also a splash of anti-communism in there as well that could catch me off guard, even though within the location and time period it was common.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, and Body shaming

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Stalking

booksjessreads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Misogyny and Injury/Injury detail

196books's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

queertrash's review

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

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

inhisbluegardens's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

This was an unusual, unexpected crime story that I really enjoyed!

 Our protagonist is an eccentric lady in her 60s named Janina Duszenko, who lives on her own in the middle of nowhere near the Polish-Czech border. She is odd and hermit-like with a love of astrology and a great reverence for animals. Mrs Duszenko's perspective on the world and her understanding of the story's happenings are really what makes this a worthwhile read. Her complete belief in the logic she draws from the stars and the deep empathy she displays for animals and for people also considered to be on the outskirts of society in some way really puts us on her side, I feel. Her dedication to solving the mystery of four separate murders involving local hunters are the focus of the book, but it almost comes second to her musings on everything from the local mushroom pickers society to the rights of animals and the reasoning behind the names she bestows on others in her head. Mrs Duszenko's unique voice does a stellar job of putting the unsavoury sharply into focus but presenting it in a matter-of-fact way. Indeed, cruelty, loneliness, exploitation and addiction can all be explained by the planetary alignments. The experience of reading this book is deepened by the way Tokarczuk writes about the landscape and the traditions that its people cling to. How we as humans, like all other living things mark the changing seasons. 

Such an interesting read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Self harm, Gore, Domestic abuse, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Blood

Minor: Fire/Fire injury