Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

5 reviews

arejaytay's review

emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Chronic illness, Grief, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

booksillremember's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

This story will stay with me for a while. It made me tear up a few times.

This is a very masculine tale - not in a toxic, but in a healthy way. Hig is a complex character. At times, he felt like a likeable version of Oryx and Crake's snowman to me.

The first 40% of the book drag on a bit at times, but it's absolutely worth getting through it. I found the descriptions of nature, flying and guns a bit lengthy, but I have aphantasia, so those things don't do much for me. I'd say someone who is into that kind of thing will really enjoy how detailed they are. Colorado sounds like a wonderful place. You can tell Heller loves the outdoors. He is also an editor and writer for outdoor and adventure magazines. 

I really enjoyed the writing style as well and don't get all the complaints in other reviews. Sure, the punctuation is unconventional at times, but can we really expect a narrator to adhere to our strict pre-apocalyptic stylistic rules? I thought it reflected his way of thinking well and it was sparse enough not to impede readability.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Animal death

atamano's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Child death, Chronic illness, and Cursing

Minor: Pregnancy

shellybelly's review

emotional hopeful 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Death, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Grief

threepigeons's review

adventurous dark reflective slow-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

3.75

As someone who grew up loving poetry and flying in a Cessna, this book is easily more accurate to the feeling of flying in an old four seater propeller plane than anything I've ever read. I didn’t have to read up on the author to know that he was a pilot. This might be the very best book that I would hesitat  to recommend to others - the pacing is slow, and it takes an explicitly sexual turn in the second half of the book. Still, it's deeply beautiful, and the narrator's voice, while taking some getting used to, is just so awesome. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Pregnancy