Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

22 reviews

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

A brisk, clever time-traveling, alternate-dimension-hopping adventure. The characters are immediately likeable and memorable, although they don't have much interiority;

even after Joe/Jem regains all his memories, it's difficult to place his relationship with Kite in the context of his marriages to Alice / Madeleine, and what Agatha and Jem also felt for each other is a mystery

. Pulley's style is delightful, lyrical and lucid at the same time. It feels strange to be rooting for the British Navy, here buckling under French colonialism; on the one hand, a keen attention to historical detail is counterbalanced by the narrow scope of telling a story of British soldiers fighting French occupation with barely a mention of Britain's own empire. I'm still discontented with the way some threads are tied up:

When does Kite reckon with the consequences of killing a teenage boy? A freak change killing off Toby and Alice and dropping children into Kite and Joe's laps seems like a cop-out way to give them a nuclear family.

But overall, a thrilling tale with immediate, powerful characters that turns on the tropes of amnesia and the horrors of war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, War, Colonisation, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Classism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol and Genocide

On rape:

though the narrative seems to acknowledge that the main character is forced into sex by his wife, it stops short of condemning her.

On racism:

The aforementioned wife is one of the only Black characters in the novel, and also killed off in order to give the white and white-passing main couple her children.

ruthjenkins's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gun violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Rape and Violence

kerrymur's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Child death, and Slavery

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War

gee_l_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War, Gore, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

lilifane's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'm not okay. I just couldn't stop crying for an hour straight while finishing the last 50 pages of the book. Had to take my glasses off because they were filling up with tears.

I did not expect this tbh. I couldn't remember how this book ended up on my TBR pile, and the only thing I did remember was that there was time travel involved in the plot. This is usually enough for me to be interested. But I was skeptical when I started reading because I didn't know what to think about the beginning. But when things stated.... moving, I fell in love with the setting and the atmosphere and the writing, and then I got attached to the characters and that was kind of too much for my poor little heart. It was shattering to pieces every few pages, and I was having one emotional breakdown after the other. And even though I guessed a lot of the mysteries early on, it made everything even more emotional. Plus, the ending kept me on my toes until the very last page, and this is something that doesn't happen often.

Be warned, though, this book is gruesome. It takes place during a war and all the horrors you can think of will be described in details. It was hard to read sometimes, but it made everything very believable and kept the stakes pretty high. (I like to pretend that one scene especially didn't happen, though. It was not the most bloody scene but a very much unnecessary one in my opinion.)

I will have to reread the book at some point knowing what I know now and also note down all those beautifully heartbreaking quotes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Suicide, Violence, and War

rebeccarudisill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is not the kind of book I normally would give 5 stars. There’s a lot of things in here that I don’t usually enjoy - violence, suspense, danger to children. But it was just so compelling. I had to know what happened next! The plot was complex and surprising and somehow uplifting and funny despite all the horrible things happening. Screw your courage to the sticking place, and read this book!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

This book is an incredibly tough read. Their are VIVID descriptions of war and the carnage that ensues. I had to take it very slowly. Be warned!

celky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Slavery

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is most definitely one of if not the best books I’ve read all year. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started it, so I kept questioning myself “Is this horror?” “Is this romance?” There are few things I’ve read that allow the reader to sink into a scene as well as this does. Masterpiece. Missouri Kite is one of the best characters in literature. 10/10. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Misogyny, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

jamieleepilk's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Hooooolllyyyy shit, this book. End of review. Bye.

God damn. I adored this twisty turn story, full of action, romance and different timelines all smushed together in one epic book!
The characters are extremely well written and complex, you can't help but fall in love with them. You want to know everything about what happened and is happening to Joe as his life and his memories don't seem to match up. The world is so vivid it's easy to escape into even though I did find myself at points having to force myself to stop reading because I just didn't want it to end. All the twists and turns in this book kept me guessing and I really liked the notion of not knowing what the outcome was going to be. This book was an utter masterpiece and a joy to read.

This is my first time reading anything by Natasha Pulley but I will be immediately purchasing everything she's ever written to correct the error of my ways as she will 100% become an auto-buy author after this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Medical content