Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

68 reviews

wistfulspirit's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Misogyny, Xenophobia

pphector's review

4.5

challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, War

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Grief

kerropiz's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Mental illness

Moderate: Animal death, Death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Abandonment

oh_sanny_day's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, War

Minor: Rape

jlautry's review

3.5

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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: No

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I am torn on how to rate this book. I give the first half two stars, but the second half deserves a strong four star rating. This book was very slow to start and, being 600 pages long, that’s not good for me as a reader. If I hadn’t seen the reviews, this probably would have been a DNF for me. 

The beginning is very confusing because there are four different storylines, four different time periods, and within those time periods, the story jumps forward and backward. For me, this was really hard to keep track of and I ended up marking and color coding each of the story changes with tabs at the top of the book so that when I came back to a certain storyline I could flip back to the last couple of sections and remember where I was in the story. It was also very boring for about the first 250 pages. I mean, it literally put me to sleep a few times. 

Around p.350 (over halfway through) the story began to pick up steam and became interesting. I was able to read the latter part of the book in just a couple days, whereas the first half took me nearly 3 weeks. In the end, I am glad I finished it. The stories do eventually come together and the pieces start to fall into place. 

I loved Zeno’s story and he was lovable, but also heartbreaking. Anna and Omeir’s story was my favorite one for so many reasons, but mainly it’s how their story ended that solidified their place at #1 for me. The book ending was a really good balance of leaving it open ended and, at the same time, tying up loose ends.  It gave much cause for reflection about one’s self, interpersonal relationships, the world, and preservation and value of history. 

While, by the end, I enjoyed both of this author’s books, I am unlikely to pick up another of his. The stories are extremely long (but with beautiful imagery!) and slow to start, and the man has a serious grudge against commas. I cannot get over the lack of comma usage and the amount of temporary confusion it causes me throughout the book. If you haven’t read either of his books, I do recommend you read at least one of his! He’s not the author for me, but I can see how his style would be good for other types of readers!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood

Minor: Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder

armstrongangela83's review

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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: No

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This book is so brilliant and so fascinating. 5 stars easy. My only complaint is that the 1450s descriptions are a bit cumbersome, but other than that it’s wonderful 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence

Moderate: Homophobia, War

Minor: Miscarriage

nodogsonthemoon's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Blood, Death of parent, War

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail

jmbz38's review against another edition

1.5

challenging slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement

Minor: Body shaming, War

purplepenning's review

4.5

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Homophobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, War

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Excrement

metchap's review

5.0

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, War