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skylacine's reviews
967 reviews
Van reuzenhaai tot Chalicotherium: fossielen uit Mill-Langenboom by Hiskia Peters
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
A Pack of Blood and Lies by Olivia Wildenstein
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Rape and Murder
The Wild Life of the Fox by John Lewis-Stempel
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, and War
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Child death
Ivypool's Heart by Erin Hunter
3.0
A mixed bag for sure.
Bullet review:
+Ivypool makes for a great protagonist still. She was one of my fave cats in OotS and I'm glad she finally got her own POV book. Her arc about processing her grief and growing into her role as deputy more was well-handled.
+Great character interactions! I love the main group here and they played off of each other really well.
+Some of the new side characters were fun and decent. Nothing groundbreaking, but they were decent enough.
*A lot of new lore introduced. I'm kind of neutral on all this, how I feel about it mostly depends on what they do with it going forward. If it is actually utilized effectively in future books I'll be okay with it, but for now all this new lore and thewildcats and StormClan just seems to be kind of there for this book and doesn't seem to be very connected to the main plot of the current arc. I will change my opinion if they do somehow manage to tie this back, but for now it seems pretty isolated.
-Oh, goodie. It's another traveling book. And the traveling is just as well written (see: poorly) as in other Erin Hunter books. Seriously, the journey here was very boring even with all the new concepts introduced.
-Plot feels rather meandering and the pacing is S.L.O.W.
Overall there is some really good stuff to be found here but it's held back by the painfully boring traveling sections. I like the character writing but is it really worth to sit through all this dull slow-paced story just to get to it?
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/2024/09/book-review-ivypools-heart-by-erin.html
Bullet review:
+Ivypool makes for a great protagonist still. She was one of my fave cats in OotS and I'm glad she finally got her own POV book. Her arc about processing her grief and growing into her role as deputy more was well-handled.
+Great character interactions! I love the main group here and they played off of each other really well.
+Some of the new side characters were fun and decent. Nothing groundbreaking, but they were decent enough.
*A lot of new lore introduced. I'm kind of neutral on all this, how I feel about it mostly depends on what they do with it going forward. If it is actually utilized effectively in future books I'll be okay with it, but for now all this new lore and the
-Oh, goodie. It's another traveling book. And the traveling is just as well written (see: poorly) as in other Erin Hunter books. Seriously, the journey here was very boring even with all the new concepts introduced.
-Plot feels rather meandering and the pacing is S.L.O.W.
Overall there is some really good stuff to be found here but it's held back by the painfully boring traveling sections. I like the character writing but is it really worth to sit through all this dull slow-paced story just to get to it?
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/2024/09/book-review-ivypools-heart-by-erin.html
Raaf: cultuurgeschiedenis in vogelvlucht by Kristof Smeyers
4.0
Overall a great read about ravens, particularly about their position in culture throughout history. I may have enjoyed the book about wolves by the same author a bit more, but this one was also really good and definitely delved into many topics regarding the bird's cultural standing throughout time in many societies.
If I do have two gripes, it's that A) the book is very short, B) the subjects sometimes change a bit quickly, feeling disorganized and C) I wish there was more of a spotlight on Asian, Australian and African philosophies and stances regarding ravens.
Discussion of ravens in European and American cultures is delved into pretty deeply, but there is almost no mention of how Asian, Australian and African peoples and cultures see the animal. Which just confuses me because ravens live across almost the entire northern hemisphere (Asia included), Australia and Africa (based on a quick Google search they're not in South America though). It feels weird to only include western perspectives on the bird when other cultures around the world might have different things to offer. Just doesn't make this book feel like a very complete picture, if you get what I mean.
If I do have two gripes, it's that A) the book is very short, B) the subjects sometimes change a bit quickly, feeling disorganized and C) I wish there was more of a spotlight on Asian, Australian and African philosophies and stances regarding ravens.
Discussion of ravens in European and American cultures is delved into pretty deeply, but there is almost no mention of how Asian, Australian and African peoples and cultures see the animal. Which just confuses me because ravens live across almost the entire northern hemisphere (Asia included), Australia and Africa (based on a quick Google search they're not in South America though). It feels weird to only include western perspectives on the bird when other cultures around the world might have different things to offer. Just doesn't make this book feel like a very complete picture, if you get what I mean.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Shunka: Life with an Arctic Wolf by Marika Lumi Morgan
Gosh that ending was sad. Moral of the story, don't keep wild animals as pets.
The story of the author and her husband who for a few years kept a wolf, named Shunka, as their pet.
Overall this book is well-written and you do genuinely get the feeling that these people love this wolf and want what's best for him, but I was also rolling my eyes quite a bit throughout the story at how the wolf was treated as a pet. As we all know by now, exotics/wild animals do not make good pets. That includes wolves.
Of course this is a pretty old book and I am looking at this through a modern lens, but I do feel bad for Shunka and what he had to endure, even if his owners clearly loved him in their own way. He never got to live life as a real wolf, even after the author and her husband sold him once he became too unruly. His only meaningful connection he ever had with another canine was his "sibling" Happy, a Newfoundland mix whom he grew up with, but after Shunka was sold he never really had another canine companion for long. Which sucks because wolves are pack animals, simply being around humans is not enough for their emotional needs to be met.
So Shunka, while being a wild animal, lived the life of a glorified pet, never got to act like a real wolf, was alone without canine companions for a long time, had to go through several super stressful experiences, and in the end he gets killed by a hunter after he escapes from his enclosure. I just feel so bad for this poor wolf.
I will give this book a decent rating because it was genuinely interesting to read and I do appreciate the author sharing her experiences, but man, this was also hard to read at times. I'm not inherently against animals in captivity (I'm not anti-zoo for example), but they do need to be able to express their natural behaviors and be as stress-free as possible. Shunka never got that in life, and I feel bad for him.
So yeah, overall this is an interesting read, but also a cautionary one. Don't get a wolf as a pet, guys. That's literally what we bred dogs for. Even the author acknowledges later on in the book that a wolf does not make for a good pet.
3.5
Gosh that ending was sad. Moral of the story, don't keep wild animals as pets.
The story of the author and her husband who for a few years kept a wolf, named Shunka, as their pet.
Overall this book is well-written and you do genuinely get the feeling that these people love this wolf and want what's best for him, but I was also rolling my eyes quite a bit throughout the story at how the wolf was treated as a pet. As we all know by now, exotics/wild animals do not make good pets. That includes wolves.
Of course this is a pretty old book and I am looking at this through a modern lens, but I do feel bad for Shunka and what he had to endure, even if his owners clearly loved him in their own way. He never got to live life as a real wolf, even after the author and her husband sold him once he became too unruly. His only meaningful connection he ever had with another canine was his "sibling" Happy, a Newfoundland mix whom he grew up with, but after Shunka was sold he never really had another canine companion for long. Which sucks because wolves are pack animals, simply being around humans is not enough for their emotional needs to be met.
So Shunka, while being a wild animal, lived the life of a glorified pet, never got to act like a real wolf, was alone without canine companions for a long time, had to go through several super stressful experiences, and in the end he gets killed by a hunter after he escapes from his enclosure. I just feel so bad for this poor wolf.
I will give this book a decent rating because it was genuinely interesting to read and I do appreciate the author sharing her experiences, but man, this was also hard to read at times. I'm not inherently against animals in captivity (I'm not anti-zoo for example), but they do need to be able to express their natural behaviors and be as stress-free as possible. Shunka never got that in life, and I feel bad for him.
So yeah, overall this is an interesting read, but also a cautionary one. Don't get a wolf as a pet, guys. That's literally what we bred dogs for. Even the author acknowledges later on in the book that a wolf does not make for a good pet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Blood and Grief
Wolven by Di Toft
4.0
Bullet review:
+The characters are pretty decent. I liked Nat and Woody a lot, plus the development of the bully character was nice. There were a few solid side characters as well.
+I like the worldbuilding. The Wolven lore was interesting enough and has a rich history going back centuries. I also like the concept of a type of werewolf that is primarily a wolf but happens to turn human, rather than the far more common vice versa.
+The climax is very intense.
-I couldn't quite get into the villains. They were pretty one-dimensional and boring and just your standard "evil government facility that wants to perform experiments on the main creature" fare.
-Some of the characters kinda turn to the good side on a dime and while this could be a good character development, the actual handling of it in the book was rather rushed.
-It gets quite brutal with some characters just being completely slaughtered, even by our heroes, just because they were deemed not being able to be saved. Like, they didn't even really try. They just get the bullet and it's not even questioned that much. I don't mind morally gray actions for main characters normally, but it felt a bit harsh especially since this is a children's book and they didn't even really try anything to save the freed werewolves.
+The characters are pretty decent. I liked Nat and Woody a lot, plus the development of the bully character was nice. There were a few solid side characters as well.
+I like the worldbuilding. The Wolven lore was interesting enough and has a rich history going back centuries. I also like the concept of a type of werewolf that is primarily a wolf but happens to turn human, rather than the far more common vice versa.
+The climax is very intense.
-I couldn't quite get into the villains. They were pretty one-dimensional and boring and just your standard "evil government facility that wants to perform experiments on the main creature" fare.
-Some of the characters kinda turn to the good side on a dime and while this could be a good character development, the actual handling of it in the book was rather rushed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Oerbos: De strijd om de Europese natuur by Dore van Duivenbode
4.5
Beautiful book about the preservation and conservation of Europe's last primeval forest. Shows the situation realistically while also trying in the author's personal experiences living in/exploring Białowieża and the Carpathians. I also appreciate how, despite not agreeing with everyone, she is still willing to explore multiple points of view, particularly those of the people living in/near the forests who depend on the forest for their livelihoods.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: War
De tijd van jagers en boeren: tot begin jaartelling. by Arie Wilschut
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Racial slurs