Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill

13 reviews

romeroreads's review against another edition

dark

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence

ashleygreene03's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Transphobia, Animal death, Violence, Sexual assault, and Abortion

kaitlynbarrett's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Miscarriage, Abortion, Sexual content, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal cruelty and Suicide

thebacklistreader's review

Clearly meant to be dramatic and dark, it felt over-done in a way that was comical. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Rape and Transphobia

mmkm1997's review

I hate DNF’ing but I just couldn’t do it. I typically don’t mind an intense book or darker plot lines, but something about this book made me feel so empty and squirmy….it was not worth finishing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

mmayern's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Abortion, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Death of parent, Classism, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Death, Rape, Violence, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Homophobia, Gun violence, Sexism, and Misogyny

aellwy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This book is a beautifully written macabre

retelling of the The Goblin Market.

The relationship between Marie and Sadie is darkly enmeshed. They ruined the lives of others for their love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Toxic friendship, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicide, Rape, Sexual content, Self harm, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal cruelty

freyanjani's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I saw this book reccomended by someone I follow on Instagram and loved the cover, only knew it was somewhat gay so I was sold. But it was so much more than what I thought. This book was a roller coaster ride and I saw reviews saying it was too long and dragged out but in every turn there is always an unexpected twist, especially in the second half. Genuinely the first time I read a 400 page book and didn’t realize it was 400 pages, one of the only books I read this year that kept me wanting to read more. 

It was queer in a really theatrical way, and I liked that it wasn’t advertised or written to be an exclusively queer story about two women in love with each other—it had everything in it. Snarky feminism, a twist on history, the cobweb of privilege, class struggle and the exhilarating side of a revolution. It’s a really unique call out of capitalism, and a fresh look on feminism. I just loved when fiction tries to intertwine with real history, especially the wordplay on the main characters’ names (Mary Antoine and Sadie Arnett). A really refreshing historical fiction. 

My ADHD brain also loved how the book has very short chapters so it didn’t feel like I was reading a long book. It felt like reading proses that was easily digestible even though it was so decadent with thought-provoking ideas. 

My only critique for this books how it describes George. It just didn’t felt right to me that she was constantly described as ugly, at times it felt unnecessary. Even though in the end it’s sort of explained why she was seen as ugly… just didn’t feel too right for me that the only gender non conforming character is being described with such negativity but I digress. I do think it’s cool to explore George’s gender identity from the POV that she was a biological female, it made me think of myself which was nice in a way. I do think we should have gotten more of George and less on Marie and Sadie’s insanity but again, I digress. Also one more critique is the fatphobic remarks on Marie’s “fatness” when she was a child. Like idk. I thought it wasn’t THAT necessary.

This has been my favorite 5 star read of the year. Very thought provoking, engaging, and radical. If it was more compact and shorter, I think it would reach a wider audience. Will be exploring more of the author’s works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Rape, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Abortion, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

thoughtful_reader's review

dark funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Dysphoria, Rape, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship

smallestcat's review

challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion, Rape, Murder, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment, Suicide, Classism, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, and Colonisation