Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

24 reviews

paigeinabook's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Panic attacks/disorders

lowbrowhighart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Big trigger warning for animal cruelty/torture! Part of the book details Harry Harlow's experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Wish I would've known that before reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Torture, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexism, Hate crime, Death, and Cancer

otherwisepassenger's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

ka_cam's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

The graphic novel format makes this book go fast, and I think I’d have found it more engaging if I were 1. more actively lonely right now and 2. Less generally familiar with the history/physiology research (so it would be new). At time moving meditation on loneliness but at other times the transitions between personal narrative and research/history felt choppy. Would recommend for anyone interested in loneliness though, since it is so quick to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Animal death, Abandonment, and Alcoholism

Minor: Death, Dementia, Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, and Cancer

jayisreading's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

3.5

This was an interesting graphic novel to read, and I really enjoyed the simple (yet not) illustrations that accompanied a reflection on loneliness in the United States (and I think the emphasis on this being very culturally specific to the country is important here). I’m not sure why, but it never occurred to me that technological advancements and their influences on communication could be so impactful in (re)defining loneliness, so it was cool to see Radtke explore that.

While I did learn a fair bit, I did find that things got repetitive at times. Considering this, I thought the graphic novel could have been a little shorter. I also think it would have been really interesting if Radtke did a deeper exploration on loneliness during the pandemic a bit more, instead of just touching on it.

I wouldn’t say it was a revolutionary read, but it certainly was a contemplative one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Death and Grief

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Cancer

emily_reads09's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, and Sexual assault

sfbookgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

This non-fiction graphic novel illustrates the aspects of loneliness in America using science and sociology to explain why we gravitate towards each other. My favorite aspects of the graphic novel are the illustrations - Kristen Radtke does a fantastic job incorporating text in her sometimes busy, and sometimes simple, graphics. Radtke also uses her own experiences to demonstrate what loneliness means to her. Her reflections resonated with me and while some of the scientific elements went over my head, I appreciate Radtke taking the time to perform ample research on loneliness in America.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death, Cancer, Animal cruelty, and Abandonment

briggs4598's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

Excellent graphic nonfiction. I appreciated the way the author combined memoir elements with sociological and psychological content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Minor: Misogyny, Animal death, Mental illness, and Grief

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Mass/school shootings

krys_kilz's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

The art in this book is gorgeous. The use of color, layout, and text style all really enhanced the book for me.

I found the topic really interesting and the author takes a very informative and researched based approach. I also liked the different vignettes that comprised the book - they did not feel scattered to me. The strongest parts of the book for me were the memoir where the author explored her own experiences with loneliness particularly around family, romantic relationships, and growing up and the social critique on America's obsession with individualism and freedom and how those are very gendered. The aspect I struggled most with was the framing of this book as an exploration of the universal experience of loneliness. The story is not universal, as nothing truly is, so that felt like a major weak point for me. I also felt the author's opinion on guns was deeply rooted in white womanhood. It is a luxury not to need to consider community self-defense.

STRONG trigger warning for animal abuse, animal cruelty, and experiments on animals in this book. She explores Harry Harlow's experiments on monkeys in depth and the details are often quite graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Mass/school shootings

Minor: Cancer