Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

153 reviews

shellyb's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

What an amazing bit of storytelling! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Neil Gaiman and he told his own story so perfectly. Both fantastical and believable.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, and Suicide

anastasiamakes's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

Hmm.

In the acknowledgements of this book, Gaiman mentions that this was meant to be a short story, but it got away from him. And personally, I felt that - I'm not a short story person. 

It also reiterated to me that I don't like horror, which I didn't realise this was. There were some absolutely beautiful, fantastical passages in here, and then I felt those were just ruined by segments of horror and gore.

All a bit "it was all just a dream, or was it?" for my tastes.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death and Suicide

markwillnevercry's review against another edition

3.0

I do not know. It was good at places. I really liked the way that magic was unexplained, I liked the part where the main character talks about how he used the old language in his dreams to make stuff better for other people, but that was it. The rest of the book was okay, I did not think that neither sex scene nor basically waterboarding where needed and they pulled down my overall opinion of the book. I was not way way too dissapointed, but I was not overjoyed either, it was just okay and I wished for it to be better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Suicide, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Confinement

oliverreeds's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

notalightbulb's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Animal death and Infidelity

royalty's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual content

Minor: Gore, Infidelity, and Gaslighting

brookey8888's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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? No

3.0

I’m not going to lie when I bought this book I thought it was a different book. Then when I realized it wasn’t that book I recognized the author so I was like I’ll just read it. That being said I didn’t know this was like magical realism and I don’t really like magical realism. It honestly just confuses me. So I was confused reading this like I understand everything that happened but I don’t know just me and this type of story and the way it was written doesn’t really vibe with me. I did like the women in this and it was interesting but it’s just not gonna be a favorite and I’m sad because a lot of people like it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Gaslighting

batcaves's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

leonormsousa's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

TRIGGER WARNINGS

animal death, bullying, child abuse, emotional abuse, infidelity, suicide, and violence

REPRESENTATION

none

REVIEW
I had very high expectations for this book and that's maybe why I ended up so disappointed with it. I definitely can see where the author was going and I can even understand why so many people loved it, but for me personally, it fell a bit short. Like one of my favourite books ever, The Shining by (the) King, it dwells on how children use their imagination to deal with trauma, leaving the reader to choose to believe or not in the fantastical elements of the story. And maybe because that is a topic that I absolutely love, I would have liked to see it explored in a deeper way. In relation to the adventure of the plot, it was interesting but it somehow didn’t pull me in, although I did like the two principal characters. The fantastical part was interesting and original, but 184 pages were, for me, not enough to explore its full potential. All in all, I did enjoy myself and I’m hoping that in a future reread (with the original English instead of the translated Portuguese like this time) I will fall in love with this book like I always expected. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, and Violence

roraisabella's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

A magical and beautiful adventure, that is also a thoughtful reflection on childhood and fear. I loved escaping into this story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, and Infidelity