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horizonous's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
I think this type of short story collections, where the stories all follow a connected thread work a lot better for me than a book filled with separate stories.
Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, and Death of parent
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
lucky_stars's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Toxic relationship, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Vomit and Dementia
dragongirl271's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, and Grief
americattt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Suicide
chocolate_pondue's review against another edition
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
lanid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Alcohol
Minor: Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Grief
tigger89's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The beasts themselves were often used as a mirror to focus the reader's attention on a troubling aspect of human society or behavior. I was strongly reminded of a manga series I'd enjoyed as a teen, Pet Shop of Horrors by Matsuri Akino. It's not that the story is that similar — for one, the horror elements in Strange Beasts are much lower-key — but I feel like it carried some similar themes at its heart, in terms of commentary on society. I want to write about my favorite chapters and why I liked them, but all of my favorite parts were the bitter twists in the story, things I can't allude to without spoiling them. There is more to it than what I can say here, though. The story evolves and deepens as the chapters go on, uncovering a situation far more complex than it first appears to be.
However, for as much detail as she gave the beasts and societal structures, the day-to-day details of the shops, transit, bars, and so on are left incredibly vague. I found this to be frustrating, feeling as if gaps had been left for the reader to connect the fictional world to the real world. But as I'm not from China, I struggled to know what real-world defaults to fill those gaps with. I'm also not sure if it was an issue in translation or the way the character was originally written, but I didn't find the protagonist to be very pleasant. She was constantly playing social games with people, saying only no-no-no while expecting to be begged around to a yes. I have no patience for this in my life, and as the story went on it began to grate on me in fiction as well. But as I said, this might be something culturally that did not translate.
Speaking of cultural issues, there's one chapter that I feel needs a specific content warning. The depiction of Prime Beasts in Chapter 8 may be disturbing to some readers, due to the beasts being described as dark-skinned and possessing several traits stereotypically associated with real-world Black populations in western society. I doubt it was deliberate due to the author being Chinese and none of the other beasts being ethnicity-coded that I noticed, but it was enough to make me do a double-take. While it's not really fair to hold an author accountable for cultural readings outside of her own culture, that doesn't mean such content won't disturb an unaware reader. So, be aware if that's something that might bother you. Unfortunately, that one's probably not a skipable chapter.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Suicide, and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident
laurareads87's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Cannibalism
antixlibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Vomit
jayisreading's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Self harm, and Suicide