Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

12 reviews

bigteo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Well I mean, it was okay I guess. 

After the strong start of the novel, it kinda slows down and becomes a fairly straightforward “characters go from A to B” zombie thriller. I thought that the medical themes were actually very well researched and interesting and definitely some of the strongest parts of the book for me. 

None of the characters were really likeable for me. I kinda liked the soldier characters, they were okay and their actions were on the whole reasonable. The teacher character, Justineau, was actually incredibly fustrating to me. A good example is when she decides to set off the flare gun after Melanie is only gone for one night. Why didn’t she wait until they fixed the armoured lab/truck thing? Setting off the flare didn’t even get Melanie to come back faster, she came back the next morning as if nothing happened. And it had barely any consequence to the plot, but it just had me so angry that she acted so irrationally. Same goes for how violent she was with the doctor character. I didn’t care for the doctor but her motives at least kinda made sense. The characters are allowed to hate eachother that’s fine, but for example near the end (spoilers ahead) when the doctor is being chased by the pack of hungry kids, she could’ve explained that’s what had happened and it was self defence, plus she got a good intact brain to test on which could potentially save all of their lives. I don’t know. Just unlikeable characters that all, in turn, don’t like eachother. So therefore I didn’t like them all that much either.

As for the ending (spoiler warning obviously but I’ll try to be brief), it ended super abruptly. The wall of fungus was something  introduced in the last couple of chapters. And the military guy Parks decides to burn it. I thought for sure they’d at least try and drive through it maybe? The silver lining to the ending that Melanie proposes seems more of an afterthought. Like, “burning it screwed up the whole world, oh well maybe good can come of it” and not something that the characters would have had to wrestle with beforehand. Maybe that conflict could have been more central, I don’t know. The world ending part kind of just happens in the last few pages without any buildup or conflict to the decision to burn the fungus wall.

I know this review seems very negative but on the whole it’s a very straightforward, interesting zombie apocalypse book. I guess if you’re a fan of the genre then this book isn’t exactly groundbreaking but it’s a fun enough read that I got through pretty quickly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Body horror, Child abuse, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol

lpogo16's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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

3.0

This is less horror and more a fantasy journey story. 

The story could have been edited down. There’s a lot that happens for the shock value or to make comments about other characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Violence, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping

Spores, Mushrooms, Fungus

blackberryjambaby's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Abandonment, Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Torture, Stalking, Vomit, Abortion, Terminal illness, and Suicide

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, and War

prufrockpreptooth's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad 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? No

4.5

OK, bah, j'ai pas pu le lâcher une fois la seconde moitié arrivée, globalement 😅 J'ai tout dévoré : l'aventure est prenante, les relations entre les personnages bien développées et intéressantes, et surtout, surtout, tout un côté scientifique qui essaye vraiment de rendre tout ça crédible - et même si on est jamais à 100%, j'adore les histoires qui essayent d'être scientifiquement crédibles, alors forcément, j'ai adoré.

Et presque, Caldwell a fini par être le personnage qui j'ai préféré (et aussi, détesté, faut pas se leurrer) le plus !

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: War, Grief, and Genocide

bookmark3brodi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, and War

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Sexual harassment

A character throughout most of the book is slowly dying from blood poisoning and I'm not sure if that'd fall under the 'terminal illness' tag or not, A character steals a grenade so that if he's in a fatal situation he can go out on his own terms, a character later in the book does something similar

shieldbearer's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

An extremely strong showing from Mike Carey, who I know from his work on X-Men. The characterizations were very well done for the most part- most of them are quite layered. The worldbuilding was strong, and the reviewers asking questions about motivations and "evolution" clearly didn't pay attention because those things were explained in the text. 

Ultimately, a few small things did knock this book down by a star for me. For one, I would have

at least switched the fates of Parks and Gallagher, though I also think you could make an argument for Gallagher's survival being more interesting than his death given the detailed backstory and internal conflict he's given. His interaction with the status quo at the end of the story would have been extremely interesting IMO

Part of this may be because I didn't particularly care for Parks, but this is also because Parks doesn't really have anything interesting going on. 

For another, I feel as though

the Hungry children were too easy to corral at the end.

The questions of the long-term viability of Melanie's plan didn't bother me because  that's not the point of the story. 

Finally, and most glaring IMO,

I feel like Sparks would have encoutnered pregnant hungries if they are able to sexually reproduce. I just have a hard time believing this aspect without a little extra narrative support - especially given how often fatal pregnancy is, and how the fungus wrecks so much of the body and shuts down a lot of its systems. Even mentioning a pregnant hungry in the crowd would have helped. I also can't say I'm a fan of the whole "sex is a human instinct" theme. I expected there to be adult hungries like Melanie that showed up later, if they specified that only the kids were the unique ones earlier I somehow missed it.

Either way, I definitely recommend this even if I feel some elements could have been treated with a bit more care- which is about what I would say about his work on the X-Men, as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Gun violence, Grief, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Pregnancy, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Car accident

reddeddy'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, Car accident, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Eating disorder, and Grief

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexism, and Misogyny

ohhellokelli's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Death