Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

7 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. 

---

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

dfrancis's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

I enjoyed the book. I sped through it and read it in two days, It was a bit confusing at times, but still fun. I feel like the characters were kind of one-dimensional. I saw someone else’s review that said they could tell when reading that the lesbian romance was written by a man and that rings true to me. The romantic storyline felt childish and incomplete. There seems to be some transphobia here, mainly (that I noticed), in the beginning there is repeated mention of a “hermaphrodite” that is totally random. It is kind of alluded to that Andy is trans but at other times it seems clear that she is simply a lesbian, her characterization around those issues felt not completely fleshed out. Not the best, but a fun little ride. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Transphobia and Alcohol

ash_ton's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

Okay so. Originally I had given this book 4 stars but after thinking about it, I lowered it to 3. I couldn't get past a lot of things no matter how much I liked the actual story.

First, though, no matter how much I complain, I did like the book. I like the concept of the 

talismans

even though I know that isn't a novel (haha) idea. I was still shocked and wasn't expecting 

the kids to be part of the ritual.

I also wasn't expecting 

Dunia Deboen to be involved, nor was I expecting her to be Damian Deboen.

Maybe in hindsight it should have been obvious but *shrugs*. So, despite the things I'm about to complain about, I did like the book because the story itself was good, in my opinion.

These are things I know others have talked about, so I'm just going to be another voice agreeing with them. The random insertion of the script format throughout the book wa sso jarring and unecessary. It did nothing for the storyline. If all the dialogue would have been in script format, sure. But that would've sucked and I would have hated it lol. In the same vein, I hated the amount of ridiculous "big" words added that seemingly were only there to beef up the sentences. Also, the made up words as well. Myriaphonic, as far as I can tell from googling, is not a real word. After some clicks, I found out a miraphone is a type of tuba, so maybe that's what he was going for? But like, bud. Pick something else.
The one random 4th wall break 75% into the book was also super jarring and unnecessary to me. If you're going to break the 4th wall, only doing it once isn't gonna cut it. Is the book self-aware or not?
My one last small gripe is how 

Dunia/Damian spoke at the end. Like he was trying to be old but hip at the same time. No one, not even a 200 year old dude, is gonna talk that cringy and weird.

 

One last thing. I'm confused about the ending. I get that Tim is Sean's great-grandson. Fine. Makes sense. But 

the spirit inhabiting Tim says he's been possessing all the dogs and that it got easier when Kerri was at college? And then the spirit makes Tim smile "bittersweetly" and says "It's all been done before." Bro wtf does that mean.

Idk if I'm just stupid, but I don't understand. I don't see anyone else mentioning that part.

Bottom line: I liked the book/story, I just mostly hated some of the writing style. Usually, I can get over that and in this case I did. I'd still recommend it, especially if you like Scooby Doo and/or retellings.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia

kalzeb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation

epeolatri's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This has very easily become one of my new favorite novels. I loved the author’s writing style and humor. Each character was amazing and fucked up in their own way. Every time I thought I had it figured out something even crazier happened, right up until the last sentence. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content and Torture

kaylatee's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

1.0

Only worth checking out if you're a die-hard Scooby-Doo fan, and even so, you may still be offended.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Deadnaming

Huge spoiler without context:

A character is revealed to be transgender and one of the lead characters does something to her that is super transphobic, with transphobic reasoning. The same lead also continues to somewhat refer to her with her deadname after the reveal (saying things like "before, when she used to be" and "when she was")

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

---

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