Reviews tagging 'Death'

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

43 reviews

smeagol357's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

I loved this book so much. It dragged me over broken glass, put me on soft mattresses, and then whacked me in the head unexpectedly. Has to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. Strongly recommend to everyone. Do not ignore the trigger warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and War

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Maggie A youre such a slay
What an icon
This is quite fucked and and quite fucking wonderful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Murder, Rape, Grief, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Classism, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Trafficking, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Abandonment

siobhanward's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

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

2.5

 I keep picking up books by Margaret Atwood thinking they'll be great. Some of her works are fantastic and hold up well and others just aren't that. I think part of the problem is there's a certain style to her works and some aspects I love while others I'm just done with. This book just didn't work for me - while I will say some aspects were pretty eerie after an actual global pandemic, one clever portion of the book did not make up for the rest, which was just meh.

I found my biggest issue was how slowly things moved. There was so much background that it seemed to take ages to figure out what was actually happening in the book. There were also some really graphic descriptions of child abuse, so be warned about those. Atwood has a gift for writing female characters caught in miserable situations, and her strongest works are ones where they can find the power to change those situations, while her weakest books are the ones where they just fall down and can't be saved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death, Medical content, and Animal death

raru's review

dark medium-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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, War, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Sexism

ac_rva's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Suicide, Pedophilia, Trafficking, and Violence

aislinn_mcd_harrison's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

3.5

This was an intriguing book, deeply disturbing in parts. I think some of the explorations here were quite Surface level and I found it a very slow burn. My least favourite Atwood but I would consider reading the sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Slavery, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Excrement

greenglass67's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This book is easily one of my favorites. It’s such a unique story. Snowman’s journey and his reflections upon his life as Jimmy are deeply human. He exhibits so much passion for some things and so much apathy for others. The range of his experiences and emotions is wild, but it all works together cohesively. The world Margaret Atwood creates is a very chilling commentary on technology and science, and she pushes us to question how far advanced we can get without it being too far. The ending is remarkable. There are little hints and clues laced throughout the entire book that you don’t realize until the ending ties them all together, all the pieces fit into place, and it all suddenly makes sense. It answers all the questions you have, and leaves you asking several questions more. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Trafficking, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Medical content, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, and Murder

allthingsnerdy's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Since i just reviewed a Becky Chambers book, it's easy to start comparing this book and Margaret Atwood's work to it. Margaret Atwood's view of humanity and the future is much bleaker and at times hard to read. But a lot of times I think it veered towards being edgy for edginess-sake, rather than just trying to present hard truths. I also prefer books that have at least a piece of hope, because it feels like then the book is just showing you the a problem without attempting any sort of solution, which feels lazy. But it feels like for this book, Atwood, is trying to show why certain solutions to a large problem won't work, which is fine and I think has value, but I guess is just not my thing. A book that I think does something similar and that I prefer is Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Child abuse, and Death

curlymango's review

dark mysterious reflective

4.0

Oryx and Crake is a miserable, disturbing, but also witty and darkly funny vision of the future where technological utilitarianism  triumphs. A slow burner at first, the flashback storyline became more fleshed out and rewarding as I read on. I felt at the beginning that Snowman as a narrator might lack depth, but you get to see his struggles with existentialism, love, shame, etc. and his ruminations on what corrupts human society.

Atwood’s writing can be exaggerated and absurd:
“‘…you’d be surprised how many people would like a very beautiful, smart baby that eats nothing but grass. The vegans are highly interested in that little item.’”

But also tragically poetic:
“Everything in his life was temporary, ungrounded. Language itself had lost its solidity; it had become thin, slippery, a viscid film on which he was sliding around like an eyeball on a plate.”

A really morbid ode to the arts.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

cait's review

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Ableism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Classism, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Genocide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Body shaming, Confinement, Sexual content, Slavery, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Pedophilia, Violence, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Kidnapping, and Vomit