Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Ordinary Monsters

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

10 reviews

colorwired's review against another edition

This book has an interesting premise but it moves so slowly that I found myself questioning whether I really liked it or not.
I was also very thrown off by The Boy That Lived trope that becomes glaringly present in the first quarter.
There are definitely parts that are dark and scary, but I somehow felt confined even though the story skips around the globe.
I didn’t finish this book because I didn’t want to do the work to plug through everything to get to the point.
I was very disappointed because I was initially very excited about this book.

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callistag1's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

1.5

1.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling a bit nice.

This is one of those books that had potential, had intrigue, and even had a compelling start, but it failed to keep that engagement throughout the book and quickly turned into a snooze fest where I was just wanting to get done with this book.

So, for the good part: The beginning was very good at getting you hooked... for a while. The settings and events that revolve around the introduced characters have a great set up, especially for Marlowe (and Eliza), Alice, and Charlie. Their meetings and the events they go through with learning about the two boys' powers and what the mysterious shadow man they are running from, with the help of Alice, to get to an institute that is meant to protect them and help them harness/control their powers gets you hooked.

But after that, the story goes downhill from there. I think it has to do with Alice being split up from the boys, but also there were a lot of things that just made this book feels flat. None of the other characters interested me much besides Jacob and Brynt. Despite how annoyingly long this book was, it felt like the characters got no development and we just saw them on a surface level because we were "told" more than "shown."

Speaking of how long this book was, at least a good 100 pages could have been lopped off, possibly more, because so much of it felt unnecessary. I say this because I remember so little of this book and I just finished reading it. Things felt repetitive at times to the point I just started skimming it, and it felt like everything from the beginning of the book was a waste of a start for a book that became so very boring.

Also, you can definitely tell this book is written by a man because practically every woman who is around Marlowe is hit with sudden 'maternal instincts,' which isn't how that works. And you also know this was written by a man because Eliza, a "minor" character who helped raise Marlowe, is shown to have deep maternal love for him and care, but when she has a miscarriage of her own baby, the book quite literally says, "And that was that."

I understand Eliza's baby wasn't conceived out of love, but for a character that cares for Marlowe the way she did to have no reaction at all from miscarrying is odd. Even if she didn't mourn the child she lost, you would think she could have had a negative response as this pain would have reminded her of the sexual trauma she went through. But that was just glossed over.

Also Alice's feelings weren't really looked at besides skimming he surface. She learns her mother, who was obviously mentally unwell and had been in an alyssum that she never visited, had been dead for seven years because no one contacted her when it happened. And she has barely any reaction. I wasn't expecting her to burst into tears, but this just felt like these things were more to shock the audience that do anything in terms of the character's response and lives.

Just want to say, if you do decide to read this book, I'd say read a physical or digital copy if you can and not listen to the audiobook. I was doing both, but I mostly read it because the audiobook was not for me. I didn't care for the narrator personality. Some of the accents he did were too thick, as if he was trying to hard, and it made it hard to understand what he was saying.

I don't think I'll be continuing this series.

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bookishinorlando's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This book dives into a world of kids with some seriously creepy talents. Think skeletons dancing and flesh melting—definitely not your usual magical school story. The pacing in the beginning can be a bit like watching paint dry, especially with all the grim street life and trauma these kids go through. It takes a while to get to the juicy bits about the villain, Jacob, and what’s really going on at the institute.

I almost gave up a bunch of times because it felt like nothing was happening, but I stuck it out, the last few chapters are where it finally gets interesting.

It’s part of a trilogy, but I’m not sure if I’m up for more of the same slow burn. If you’re into dark and gritty stories with a hint of hope, this might be your jam.

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kaeli_18's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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eli_deatherage's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Felt a little slow here and there, but man it is worth it! Intriguing and mysterious world that never feels quite safe.

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natyourusual_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-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? It's complicated

1.5

This book was beautifully written at certain points but painfully slow. It was a struggle to read it despite the cool magic system and general concept BECAUSE of the pacing. I love the idea of children with magic/special talents that are taken to a “school” of sorts for development and protection while there’s a big bad putting the world at risk. It’s a solid premise. Add some vaguely steampunk-ish elements and ensemble cast, and I’m sold! However, I found that the plot twists were too predictable, the pacing was absolutely abysmal (even for a more epic-style story), and a lot of plot points/character portrayals were a bit… uncomfortable… to say the least. I really wanted to love it and the more I read the more I realized that this author was fantastic in the more condensed chapters and the story truly could have benefitted from condensing the narrative a bit more. If you do not mind major spoilers, my more specific critiques will be below:

Okay, so in terms of the problematic parts of the story, there is the portrayal of England as this haven of inclusivity and diversity during the Victorian period that felt a little odd. Like, Charlie Ovid is a black character that was saved from being tortured for eternity in America. This is fine and makes sense given American history, but they don’t keep the same energy for when he reaches England (which was definitely not a beacon of inclusiveness at the time either). Like Charlie is (obviously) scared of white people and he’s told something along the lines of “you’re safe, you’re not in America anymore, we’re not like that here” and nobody so much as looks at him funny, when we all know that’s some weird England apologist nonsense. Also, there’s a lot of telling us that Alice Quicke is a hardened badass without showing us nearly enough. Apart from that, I feel like some of the violence against women (especially sexual violence) was sort of added in as a way to make the story darker without any real commentary or care shown about the subject, which was a bit upsetting.

Moving onto the actual plot points:
- Jacob Marber being a morally gray character who’s not the REAL villain might have landed better if he had been written better. It was predictable but the excuses made for him seemed a bit contrived and almost like an afterthought given the scale of what he did and all the material Miro had to work with. Frankly, his character arc could’ve been resolved if he just communicated with people after the druhgr seduced him. I’m sure if he told Coulton “everyone is evil, we gotta do something about it and make sure the orsine is closed forever” the man would’ve helped him. Same with a lot of other characters. Tbh, he could’ve bided his time and done things differently and maybe it would make more sense if he actually tried to do things the “right” way but lost his way at some point. It also could have been good to see him be betrayed/framed for some things so it could be more ambiguous as to whether he’s eighth or wrong.
- Dr. Berghast being evil all along was also predictable as was his using the missing children as experiments to replace/fix the glyphic. Frankly, I was shocked he wasn’t outright sacrificing them and using their blood for something given the way the book was going, though I suppose what he did do was just as bad.
- By the time we find out who Marlowe’s mom really is, I didn’t really care and I think that’s a testament to how unnecessarily complex the author made the story and how painful it was to get through.
- Coulton becoming a litch was also very predictable given his hatred/disgust of them, the way he died, and then how his body wasn’t collected when he died. While I’m on the topic of litches, we didn’t need to constantly be reminded what they look like. We know. We got it the first two times. The needle-like teeth don’t need to be restated every scene. We got it.
- The final fight (in the last couple chapters) was incredibly convoluted. I missed Walter Laster and Jacob Marber actually dying (which I’m calling it now that Jacob isn’t dead and they’re gonna try to make him have a Zuko-style redemption arc) because it was so convoluted and awful.
- Switching POVs and time jumps started off fun but became a drag to read after a while. I love a good flashback situation but sometimes the steps back and forward were too often or the POVs switched at weird times. There was even a section around chapter 39 where they changed POVs like 6 times on the same page. I’m glad it was only a one time problem but that was really annoying and halted the flow of the story a lot.
- Some parts, for all the over explaining throughout the story, got glossed over at weird times. We still don’t know much about the weir bents or the old artifacts but we know they were integral parts of the story that characters with POV sections knew a lot about, so why over explain the way a litch looks and how Alice is totally a badass with no nurturing to her despite her being primarily a mother figure the whole book, when really we needed real plot-specific world-building explanations?

Anyways, I wanted to love this but just felt relieved it was over in the end. I don’t see myself continuing the series. I’m sure it’s a book for someone, however, that someone isn’t me. If you start reading the book and find that it’s dragging too much for your liking, just know it doesn’t get better in that regard. I think the author is great when he feels the need to be concise and brevity is what this novel lacked overall in many aspects. Also, well-written women. There weren’t a lot of those either…

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librarianlayla's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

4/4.5 stars.

Prepare yourself for a heartbreaking, raw, ride. Beautifully written, darkly descriptive, and intense.

The only reason this doesn't get the full 5 stars is because there was very little ebb and flow of emotions. It is mostly fraught, with very few light moments to break up the harshness. But I did enjoy it greatly, and am looking forward to the sequel!

For fans of Miss Peregrine's, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Nevers.

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