Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Animal by Lisa Taddeo

45 reviews

orlagal's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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maggiedialtone's review against another edition

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

3.5

3.5

WILD ride. God, men can be so fucking disgusting. The story oscillates between Joan’s childhood memories and her present search for her half sister, Alice, after Joan’s ex shoots himself in front of her, in a restaurant. We learn about her history with this man and many other (mostly shitty) men who’ve crossed Joan’s path. the prose is simple, yet cutting and the chapters are short so I just flew through it. it was interesting and pretty engaging the whole time.

to be considered: a lot of the subject matter is pretty fucked up. 

Maybe I’m just ovulating, but I feel like a sapphic b plot opportunity was missed between Eleanor & Joan, if even in Carmillaian undertones.  

The pacing felt weird/inconsistent at times.

The end was ambiguous and I can see how this is a choice but I didn’t love it.

ALSO  major trigger warnings (TW) for domestic violence, suicide, r@pe, loss of pregnancy, blood, lotta wacky shit

long story short I support women’s rights and wrongs 🤷‍♀️

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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

3.0

I literally have no clue how to rate this it could be 1 star it could be 4 stars

‘I have always wondered why men don't do a better job of turning off their eyes.’

‘The world had set me up to believe that it was women who went mad. It was simply women's pain that manifested as madness.’

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miaaaaa_t's review against another edition

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

4.0


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kaylac4's review against another edition

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dark fast-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

3.5


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haileyeh's review against another edition

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dark sad 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

Uhhhhhhhh…..ok then

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judyhagan's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Evocative, poignant, gut-punchingly heart-rending, harrowing: I was rapt until the end. I don't have words for how this gripped me and tore me apart. 

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carolined56's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

4.25


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clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

3.0

I don't know how to feel about this book. I resonated with a lot of its themes and assertions about the ceaseless violence men commit against women and the ways our entire inner lives are shaped by the men we're exposed to, and I appreciated Joan's unabashed commitment to voicing the darkest parts of herself. But I found the plot kind of tiring, definitely disturbing, and vaguely performative; it felt a little redundant of other books I've read like it before, like The Girls and Bright Young Women, and it was not an enjoyable read.

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bratatouille's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

I adore the way that Taddeo sinks her claws into a reader and drags them along for the ride. Her storytelling is raw and violent in a way that is grotesquely, uncomfortably, human. The topics touched in this range from mildly uncomfortable debauchery to nausea-inducing evils. I can’t say that she handles them with grace, but there is a surprising air of dignity latched into ever sentence in this novel. Joan, our protagonist, goes on a journey that flashes between past and present. This back and forth is occasionally confusing, but is paced in a way that is infuriatingly good. When you become attached to the outcome of one timeline, Taddeo throws you back into the other. Although a large part of the story, sex is never depicted in a titillating fashion. Instead, it reads more like a means to an end or a necessary evil. This is immensely a feminine rage book. It’s not quite on the Gone Girl level, but maybe more unhinged instead of calculated. I can’t deny the surprising moments of clarity where I would see myself reflected in Joan despite how little I cared for her. I would rate it higher for prose alone, but often times I felt that the story would drag or that some sections were strictly unnecessary. After loving Three Women as much as I did, I am in no way disappointed by this follow up work of hers.

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