aurora4847 's review for:

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I was very confused about this book before I listened to it, it was nothing like I expected it to be! I anticipated a run-of-the-mill story with some interesting narrative devices, but this was truly like nothing else I've ever read. It was confusing at first, but by the end of the first day I was deep in it. I loved the little interjections from the background characters especially. It was a lot darker than I expected, which wasn't bad but caught me a bit off guard, especially with regards to

The Defect

and the

cannibalism

. I think if I completely engulfed myself into the book I would've gotten way more out of it and appreciated it a lot more than I did, but even a more surface-level read was very enjoyable!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy

This book is dark, but also things go by quick enough that you don't linger in all the horrible things. There are multiple scenes of cannibalism, from both POVs. People are mind-controlled, including to do harmful or sexual things against their will. There's a lot of upsetting stuff that happens to sentient tortoises.