Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

19 reviews

cmbrown4's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, and Animal death

brookebatesratesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Cursing, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Animal death

cyndakeel's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death and Blood

scipio_africanus's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Peter Heller clearly knows and loves nature and poetry. This book is pretty much a nature novel about fishing, hunting, and survival with brutal post-apocalyptic violence interspersed throughout. This book was so good that it could easily go into my top 10 favorite novels. 

Was surprised by all the bad reviews for this book. I just dont get it. People saying it's slow or boring. I wasn't bored once. There was plenty of violence,  even a good bit of quality humor, and I enjoyed the more peaceful sections of the story as well. I listened to the audiobook, which may have been a different experience to reading it. 

Can't recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Blood, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Grief

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

jessrad505's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Violence, Animal death, Death, and Gun violence

hanjackson's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Animal death

mtnest's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Pandemic/Epidemic, Murder, Gun violence, Cursing, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

Minor: Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

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

midniterose63's review

challenging dark hopeful 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

I enjoyed the book very much. I think the author, at times, tried too hard to walk the line between genre fiction and Literary Fiction With Deep Thoughts. It presented a more realistic picture of post-apoc America than the average EOtWAWKI fare.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

The dog dies