Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

10 reviews

monarchbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I don't know what I was expecting going into this book but it was not what I got. Every page shocked me. A bit wordy and heavy on metaphors. Unexpected queer rep. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Deadnaming

sn8man's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Blood, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Mental illness and Sexual content

professor_dinosaur's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-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

2.5

I enjoyed myself, which I think is the single most important element of a book like this. It has a heart, and I think fans of Scooby-Doo who can stomach a lot of cheese will enjoy themselves too. 

The biggest nick to my enjoyment was the stiffness of the characters. Though distinct and fun, they struggle to feel round in the way the narrative seems to ask of them, more “caricature” than “character.” I think the source material does a lot of leg work for this book. Without having the background knowledge of the Scooby-Doo cast, much of the characterization is fairly flat (ex. the term “jock” had considerable economy). Many of the interpersonal conflict feels stilted as a result, subservient to the action-plot. The prose can be very clever at times, and then too clever, almost like a charming but metaphor-bloated college essay. Action scenes got increasingly hard to follow, not impossible to understand but maybe too nitty-gritty-detail-heavy. 

I know it’s a toss-up, but I found the switch between prose and the “play” style nice. I can see its utility - what would the author really do in between these snappy scenes anyways, write dialogue tags? When it came to the more self-aware parts of this fourth-wall-flirtation, I was skeptical. Especially references to “the camera” and whatnot. Really just felt out of place - there’s no cameras in Scooby-Doo. 

Maybe I wasn’t the target demographic, but I felt the Big Bad was trite. The book can’t help this, if you are going to write “Children’s Property Meets Lovecraft,” you need Lovecraft there. It’s difficult to make that fresh, I respect that. The accomplice to the Big Bad, now she was fun (albeit again corny, but who really minds a corny villain?). She did a lot for the story, but she’s not in the story much. Oh, and “le epic twist” regarding her is not very rewarding. In fact, most of the “le epic twists” aren’t. A reader has scant opportunity to suspect that we were even meant to be looking for a deception. Y’know, like clues… like in Scooby-Doo. I found myself saying things more like “okay, sure, that’s plausible” than the much better “ah, I should’ve known!” Is this meant to be in the fashion of actual Scooby-Doo villains? Maybe. That’s where I give those elements a little leniency.

The whole “Scooby-Doo for adults” pitch was dicey with me the second Andy kicked those guys in the nuts. I never felt like the book treated its more serious “adult” themes with disrespect, but there were times (ex. Arkham Asylum, just about anything involving Peter) where the cartoon-ifying of adult (and traumatic) experiences gave me tonal vertigo. Maybe I can compare it to an Adult Swim program. This is where the prose did the book a disservice. It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, when you put “edgy” (read: adult) material into an otherwise playful book it can be hard not to fall back on “edgy” (read: angsty) prose. I think this issue is a symptom of the quirky prose and overwhelming identity of the book (Scooby-Doo x Lovecraft, you won’t forget this for a single page), and not one that spoiled the book for me. For the record, the scene where Andy kicked those guys in the nuts felt sort of like a Reddit comment, if that makes sense.

I feel like Andy uses Reddit. That’s all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Racism, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Classism

madladhatter's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I liked the ambition with the mixed writing styles, but it didn't ulimately serve a purpose or add to the story. Also, this author clearly thinks that he is not writing women in a way that objectifies them- he totally is.  The way they described themselves was iffy, but the way they described each other was worse. Especially the

romance between Kerri and Andy.

The story itself was fun, although it was very much a play through of action movie tropes, which was then pointed out in numerous 4th wall breaks. The plot carried the characters, rather than the other way around.

The characters were functional, but their dynamic didn't feel complex enough to have been actual childhood friends. Also Peter, the dead guy, tends to be really slimey toward his supposed friends.

This is somewhat weakly explained because we learn later that he isn't the real Peter. A twist dampened by the fact that Nate suspected that from the beginning, and never tells the rest of the team that he is seeing their dead 5th member.

 

Overall the writing felt underedited. The conclusion felt unfinished, especially with a lot of the stuff around Peter remaining unclear

when did he start betraying them? was the "ghost" even part of him, or was it all manifested by the villain?

The strongest scene in the book is when they have to explain to their mentor figure that Peter died.

which is unfortunate, because the mentor also dies and we feel nothing from them- either in the moment, or processing it after. the same goes for learning that their dead childhood friend had his corpse stolen and reanimated, with the express purpose of luring them to the lake and murdering them. is it just me? or should your characters have some complex and messy feelings about that?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Transphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

Minor: Abortion and Acephobia/Arophobia

matcha_cat's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

itsheyfay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicide, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Racism and Kidnapping

seawarrior's review against another edition

3.0

I read this book on vacation, which I think made it easier to finish than the first time I tried. The story is engaging and fast-paced, though the mystery wasn't as unique as I'd anticipated, and the characters didn't have the amount of depth to them that I prefer. There's plenty of fight scenes, but I don't particularly like reading those. This is definitely a book for people who are interested in H.P. Lovecraft's work, but I only recognize some of his themes and symbols from movie adaptions. So altogether, it wasn't a horrible read, but there were several elements to it that I didn't enjoy. The worst of all these is Andy's obsessive, one-sided romance with Kerri that is resolved by Andy treating Kerri like her girlfriend while Kerri still maintains that she is straight. I don't know why Cantero wouldn't just allow Andy to move on, or have Kerri discover that she is sapphic. I guess I would still recommend this book to people who are interested by the premise. Like I said, it isn't horrible, but it didn't appeal to me as much as I'd hoped. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

emkral's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Kidnapping

willowmae's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Grief