Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

10 reviews

siprianosonia's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Suicide, War, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic friendship, Torture, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Child death

justdiana's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Very slow start. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Drug use, Murder, Self harm, Torture, Alcoholism, Cancer, Confinement, Mental illness, Violence, Addiction, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Sexual content, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Suicide, and War

jennswan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Body horror, Gore, Torture, Suicide, Abortion, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, and Medical content

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-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

5.0

Apresento-vos o livro mais 🤯 que li em 2023 e ainda bem que foi numa leitura conjunta com a Bestie porque eu precisava de discutir a salada russa que isto foi!

⏳ Harry August é o nosso narrador, ele vai falar das suas várias vidas num formato semelhante a um diário. Ele pensava ser um ser humano e viveu uma vida típica de um britânico nascido em 1920, mas tudo mudou quando ele morre e volta a renascer como Harry August e com as memórias da sua 1ª vida. A partir daí, ele vai tentar perceber que abominação ele é e só vai encontrar um rumo à sua vida imortal quando descobre o nome Kalachakra.

⏳ Na 3ª foto eu indico os pontos principais do livro, mas deixem-me contar-vos que a quantidade de conteúdo e pesquisa postos neste livro para falar de momentos e monumentos históricos assim como descobrimentos científicos, tudo a nível mundial, é vasta. Para quem leu "Babel" e gostou do valor informativo/educativo, também vai gostar deste livro porque é tudo inserido no enredo e não feito como info dump.

⏳Esta pode ser uma leitura intimidante também pela edição em si.
• 1º conselho que dou, não leiam a introdução sobre a história da sci-fi que colocaram lá por whatever reason (mata logo os neurónios).
• 2º conselho, leiam o livro aos poucos porque ele tem uma letra bem pequena e apesar de capítulos curtos (são 82...) estes são bem lentos de ler - demorei um mês.
• 3º conselho, usem post-its para se orientarem no enredo porque há muitos time jumps para justificar certas escolhas do protagonista com experiências das suas diferentes vidas, a mim ajudou.
• 4º conselho, ele demora 100 pág. até nos dar as primeiras pistas do rumo da estória e outras 100 até o Harry começar a agir como um protagonista numa missão. Eu normalmente não tenho paciência para tal, mas vale muito a pena aguentar.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ eu li a última página múltiplas vezes, mas só fez sentido quando lá cheguei e foi um 🤯 que desvenda toda a razão de ser do livro e apaixonei-me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Genocide, Death of parent, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape, Abortion, War, Addiction, and Animal death

sakisreads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

1.5

I truly wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The premise of reincarnation and time travel are ones I thoroughly enjoy, so I had high expectations. It was also recommended by friends of a friend; two people with very different tastes in books had said they had enjoyed this one thoroughly. 

So yes. High expectations were there and were not met unfortunately 🥲

Harry August drags on… and on… and on… I really had to pull through the first 50%. It then started picking up a bit and I was hopeful again, before the dragging resumed at 60% 😫
I had to skim through so much of it; it was so unfortunate.

1.5 out of 5 stars for me unfortunately ✨ Sorry!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, and Torture

pastlifetragedy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Abortion, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death, Torture, and Suicide

Moderate: Violence, War, Vomit, and Rape

Minor: Bullying and Classism

spookily's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Medical content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, Genocide, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Child death, War, Death of parent, Rape, Self harm, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Classism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Grief, Pregnancy, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Addiction, and Car accident

ladybismuth's review

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Definitely one of my favourite books. The narrative is exquisite, the characters are complex and intriguing, the plot is original and interesting. After reading it I couldn't stop thinking what I'd do with my lives if I were an ouroboran.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Torture, Murder, and Drug use

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The premise was really cool and interesting, but I struggled a lot with the rest. The atmosphere was quite depressing, and I really didn't like the detailed descriptions of torture, injuries and diseases. If you can think of any trigger, you can be sure it's in the book. I also didn't care for any of the characters, most of them were pretty unlikable. And it probably didn't help that I didn't like the German translation or the German narrator of the audiobook. Kinda wish I'd had access to the English book/audiobook.

There were some things I liked, though. The premise, like I said. But also how the story was structured. You get these random episodes of Harry's lives, and with each one you get a piece of information that explains how living your life over and over again works. All the pros but also cons are explored really well, and I like how they play a big part in the showdown of the story. I think it was cool, how many historical events around the globe Claire North was able to insert in the plot, the research must have been really extensive. Oh, and some of the settings were really cool. 

But all in all it felt too long in some places, too short in others, and the ending really dragged a lot because of so many repetitions. This felt like a 1000 pages book without actually being one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

georgianadarcy's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

This is probably my favourite book.

The premise is fascinating, the way North explores it is even more fascinating & the characters are intricate & richly woven into the plot.

When Vincent was revealed to be evil I cried & when he tortured Harry & tried to wipe his mind I damn near sobbed.

Go read it. Then cry & force everyone you know to read it too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, and Vomit

Harry’s (protag) mother is raped & this is brought up multiple times but discussed emotionally rather than graphically. The torture scenes are pretty graphic too - they do make you squirm but

he can’t die so make of that what you will