Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

22 reviews

soapyjoseph's review

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Gonna pretend the last few pages never happened and replacing them in my mind with “and they all lived happily ever after :)”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Car accident, and Infidelity

Minor: Pedophilia

kelreadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Grief, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child abuse and Alcoholism

Minor: Car accident

signeskov's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Bullying, Grief, Sexism, Rape, Gaslighting, Car accident, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia, Alcoholism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal death

kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my goodness this book. THIS BOOK. It's heart wrenching, it's tense, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat. Your heart will hurt. You'll be angry at a few people. But it's worth the ride. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Alcohol, Infidelity, Death, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

nicolaparty's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Grief, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Bullying, and Animal death

Moderate: Classism, Outing, and Police brutality

Minor: Excrement, Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Drug use

lipliplip's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Death, Alcoholism, Addiction, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, and Outing

katha_'s review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

I loved, how vividly the characters were drawn, how I could relate to them even though i didn't relally like any one of them. The story combines so many themes of growing up, surviving hardships, sexuality, love and you can feel how carefully the story was constructed. It is fascinating how cose and distant a family can be at the same time.
At the same time, getting through the book was hard work: Especially the style in Imelda's part, although fitting, was very hard to read. And the book is pretty long, and while I think I understand the role the family members play, I wonder whether one or two POVs could have been left out.

After getting through 600 pages, the ending is pretty unsatisfying tbh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Pregnancy, Animal death, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Self harm, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Bullying, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Murder, Outing, and Rape

Minor: Dementia and Cancer

znvisser's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

You know those romcoms where you can't help but shout: 'just communicate with each other!!'? Well, this is the family drama version of that. The Bee Sting follows four family members into each of their owns destruction. Despite starting out with a lot of teenage girl drama, this captured me immediately. For one because I’ve once been a teenage girl with a friend like Elaine - so I immediately hated her guts (in my case tho, I was 5 years younger and there was no crush involved); but secondly, it's the writing that drew me in, and while I usually get annoyed easily by authors skipping quotation marks it took me a while to even notice it here (although it was almost too challenging in the Imelda chapters that just threw all (!) punctuation overboard). I loved looking into the heads of these messy, self-absorbed family members who each had their own problems they kept strictly to themselves. This book is full of messaging and coincidences and parallels, and even though at some point it almost loses track of its characters being too busy with very explicit climate change warnings, it finds its way back to the Barnes family, pushing them towards each other again. These characters are haunted by the past and the flashbacks from Imelda and Dickie are an integral part of their story, if only because it provided insight into how this train wreck of a family was doomed already a generation before them. Because gosh, they were doomed, but if they would have actually talked to each other every once in a while none of them did have to be so terribly lonely throughout it all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Police brutality, Rape, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cancer, Gun violence, and War

ronanmcd's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

It's a book about being human. About being alive, and having faults. It's a book about Ireland, as it is.
It's brilliant. You don't read it but fall in.
Some notes:
It's an indictment of Ireland that when characters are having a conversation, one that doesn't affect the narrative and is in to show their are going about their everyday, it's always about possessions; who has what, who wants what, who's getting this or that. Observed from life, this is how we talk now.

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By a certain point the book reflects painfully on the reader. Over time we have begun to identify with the characters, to such a point that we fully agree when one character is being urged to murder. It seems fair, it's logical. This is something that shows just how powerful fiction can be. It's immense.

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It's such an absolute experience. We become fully engaged with each character. Immersed in the book, it's hard to look away and see real life in front of us and distinguish fact from fiction. It's disorientating. Deeply.

It's all goes very King Lear in the confusion of the crashing rain at the end, typeset as drama. We are left feeling it was foolish ever to be hopeful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Dementia, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Murder, and Pedophilia

deedireads's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.75

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Layered, ambitious, and gripping, The Bee Sting is 500 pages of family saga followed by 150 pages of literary thriller that we absolutely need. I hope it wins the Booker!

For you if: You like long books about characters that could step off the page as they break your heart.

FULL REVIEW:

I was excited to read The Bee Sting even before it was longlisted (now shortlisted) for the Booker Prize, thanks to this incredible plug in LitHub’s list of most anticipated 2023 books. While I recognize that this chonker isn’t going to be for everyone, it was absoLUTEly for me.

500 pages of family saga followed by 150 pages of literary thriller, The Bee Sting is layered, ambitious, and gripping. We are introduced to four members of a single family living in rural Ireland in the early 2010s: Cass, in her final days of high school; 12-year-old PJ, brilliant and largely friendless; Imelda, their mother trying to save them from the recession; and Dickie, their father, who makes his living as owner of the local car dealership that was once his father’s. With every person we meet, our understanding of all the secrets and dynamics between them deepens, until all that tension reaches an explosive, dizzying end.

I freakin love a family saga, especially the really well-done kind where the characters tug at me from deep in my gut (as this one does). I’m deeply impressed with how distinct and realistic each character’s voice was, especially the two children; Paul Murray is insanely talented at this part of his craft. I also really loved all the flashbacks, especially in Imelda and Dickie’s sections. I know some reviewers felt a bit whiplashed, but I found so much depth in them. In fact, I think they’re what really give those two characters to us, as readers, and I often didn’t want to return to the present at all. And WHEW, that ending. It took some contemplation for me to feel satisfied by it, but it’s clearly the right ending for this book.

There’s so much to say and unpack here, and a review only has so much space. But I’m so glad that the Booker of the Month book club got to read it together and discuss. I’m rooting for this one to win the Booker!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Animal death, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Pedophilia and Classism