Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Distância de Segurança

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Distância de Segurança by Samanta Schweblin

61 reviews

ribbenkast's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.25

This book is exactly what the title suggests: a complete fever dream.

The prose and storytelling devise were interesting enough. I liked the themes of motherhood, grief and the various motives used by the author. Overall I think this book is very clever and has all the checkmarks of becoming a future classic.

But (and this might be a translation issue) I found it hard to understand what was going on. Despite It's overall literary quality I couldn't quite manage to connect with the book personally. I like unreliable narrotors, especially ones that also have no clue about what is actually happening, but I felt like the hints that are supposed to tell the reader what was actually going on where too hidden away in throwaway lines and are easily missed. You have to be paying attention to every single little word in every sentence and whilst I can respect that whenever an author is doing that, I just didnt care much for it with this particular story.

Also, the back blurb and especially the recommendation qoutes on the inside promised me a bone chilling horror story that would "make me lock the doors at night". Why? The "danger" in the book (if you could call it that) has nothing to do with horror and does not leave you spooked.

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macncheese_pdf's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense 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? No

4.0

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amyteurhour's review against another edition

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3.5

Content warning: death, medical illness/trauma

I started reading this book years ago, but never finished because I got a bit creeped out. I finally decided to give it another try, because of all the good reviews that made me pick it up in the first place. It was still really tense and a bit creepy

I kept thinking that Clara would turn out to be a bad guy and try to steal Nina

. The end was so abrupt

and I'm not really sure how we were supposed to know that's what happened, since the whole book is from Amanda's POV, and I'm pretty sure she died?

. Anyways, creepy, but I'm glad I finally read it.

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morgue666's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Can’t help but think watching the movie before reading the book helped in some way but hindered in others. I imagine this is much more impactful when read by people in Argentina where they can read between the lines a little more and infer about the

impact of pesticides as this is environmental horror very clearly linked to Argentina’s current climate.

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cathicks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.25

I feel like the story fell flat for a couple of reasons

I didn’t like the mystical aspects of the story, like how David was mysteriously doing things or the greenhouse because it made me expect more at the end of the book and nothing happened that was a “big magic reveal” or something
I don’t like books where the title gives away the story, cause you read the title, know that’s what the story is, but you want it to be more and discover the story yourself. I wanted to be surprised it was a fever dream but at the same time that trope is (in my opinion) more lazy and overused. However this wasn’t AS bad as the typical “it was all a dream” because you’re aware it’s a dream, minus the David part

I honestly would’ve enjoyed it a lot more if it just focused on her in this poisoned environment not aware WITHOUT all the mystical elements. This could’ve very well been a realistic horror novella on its own without the supernatural elements. Overall I did enjoy reading the books aside from being confused from time to time, and even though I was disappointed after finishing.

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hpfan9501's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A

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opal_scorpio's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

super suspenseful and confusing book. i started it at like midnight thinking i’d just read a bit but instead i ended up staying awake until almost 4 am reading the whole thing in one sitting. and it was so worth it!!

i was so fascinated by the plot and how it’s laid out in a back and forth, conversational manner with David (who is probably a hallucination).

the environment being the villain/killer of the story was really interesting instead of it being david’s change haunting the town. it’s such a rational explanation that you don’t even think about it!! but the deformities and miscarriages of the children of the town and the mysterious animals deaths could be explained by whatever that chemical was in the barrels.

it’s sad that david is blamed for the spooky stuff when in reality his brain was probably fried from the illness that killed the horse and the subsequent fever that lasted for days, NOT his soul being split.

throughout the story it’s hard to tell what is reality and what is made up, but the entire conversation is probably also made up in amanda’s head. but i think what really drives home the “fever dream” is amanda seeing her husband visit david’s father looking for answers and her imagining her daughter had switched souls with david. so scary and kinda plausible within the world but since she, the narrator, dies at the end of the story it makes you, the reader, rethink everything she has recounted up until that point.

fantastic book!! 10/10!

(any technical issues i have with the book are being attributed to its translation from spanish to english. i think the plot was fantastic, just some words here and there that maybe didn’t make a lot of sense but again i think it’s a translation issue and not the author’s fault.)

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eatyourenglish's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

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librarymouse's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm really not sure what to think of this book. It's very consumable. I read it in just over an hour. At a few points, I wondered if this book is an allegory for the changes that occur when a child starts showing signs of autism, since both David and Nina are noted to line up things just before their poisoning becomes severe. I'm not sure that that is the case, but this book, as per the title, reads like a fever dream. There's definitely a commentary being made on the visibility of disabled children, how they're viewed when the disability is developed, and on a wealth disparity between the urban well to do and the rural poor.

I'm sure if I were to read this again and again, I'd find a new understanding each time.

the confirmation of the migrations being done in the greenhouse being real, at the end, is an interesting twist (?). I don't know that it can be called a twist because David is co narrating, and were told by Carla that it is real, but Amanda's scepticism is infectious. Nina being in David's body at the end of the book, unrecognized by her father is heartbreaking. Carla saying that if she could have another child, she'd want one like Nina is made all the more unsettling and sad with the ending. Her tying knots, as if trying to reinstate the snapped, ineffable rope that connects her to her mother

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books_onthe_ground's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Worms and anxiety. That’s this book in two words. This book was short, tense and intriguing; I read it in one sitting. I am a horror reader and as this book was marketed as creepy I will say that I was a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn’t as creepy as I thought it was going to be. That said, I really enjoyed the suspense of this book and I read it so quickly because I desperately wanted to know what the hell was going on! Personally I wanted a little more of a creepy atmosphere but other than I loved this book. If you are looking for a short, suspenseful and confusing novella this is for you and I absolutely recommend it. I’m still confused, but the good kind, you know? Fever dream is definitely an accurate title.

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