Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Una Porta per Ogni Cuore by Seanan McGuire

25 reviews

ehmannky's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I went into this story completely blind and just chose this by the cover at the library and I am so, so happy I did. I am a huge fan of looking at the aftermath of tropes like "the chosen one" and "portal fantasies," and this book is just looking at trauma from kids who lived out the portal fantasies. It's weird and it's dark and there's murder and just glimpses of the weird, horrible and wonderful worlds that these kids travelled to. 

I don't think that this reads as YA, even if most of the characters are teens. Not that YA can't be brutal like so much in this book, but it reads more adult to me. Like, trigger warning for those who read this book, you're going to read about multiple children getting harmed, dying, and having their corpses mutilated during the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Body horror, Death, Grief, Violence, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

Minor: Emotional abuse, Vomit, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse

whitney_walton's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

Fun, fast-paced, mysterious YA book. Feels like Thirteen meets the Magicians meets Tim Burton, with diverse and interesting characters. Recommend for a quick weekend read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Gore, Death, Transphobia, and Body horror

Minor: Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Grief, Medical content, and Violence

oliverreeds's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

really good. why wasn’t it longer. i liked it a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abandonment, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Bullying, Gore, and Transphobia

sarahjacobs1122's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This was a great story. I guessed who the killer was early on in the book but I still enjoyed the reading experience. The writing had a great flow to it. I liked the characters and how they each had a distinct personality and world. I think that the character’s could have been explored some more especially Nancy and Kade. Overall, I enjoyed the book but it was a little too bare bones for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty

ok7a's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment and Grief

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Transphobia

emsavors's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

laurajones's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Dysphoria, and Eating disorder

szuum's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

To my great disappointment, I enjoyed nothing about this book:

• Premise sounded interesting but its execution was entirely underwhelming
• Writing style was average and full of clunky exposition 
• Mystery was uninteresting (and needlessly gory) 
• Characters were all without personality or distinctive voice - nobody felt, talked, behaved or reacted to what was happening like an actual person
• No emotional resonance whatsoever

To sum up the book in one word: bland. Oh, and the Narnia bashing was pathetic (and I don't even like Narnia...)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, and Child death

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming and Animal cruelty

amberqn's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Asexual representation, ace rep, trans rep,

crinspire's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

Diverse, yes, but also very predictable, and very surface level. The writing, which I've seen described at beautiful, is filled with cringey metaphors that do not make sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Eating disorder, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty