Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

24 reviews

hauntedboi's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders

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.

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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

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

gentlellama's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious medium-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

5.0

This is a love letter to all the horror fiction and horror films that came before, mixed with a touch of Scooby-Doo, of course. I must admit that I got drawn in by the Scooby-Doo angle as I am not an avid reader or watcher of the horror genre. However, if you are, I think you’ll love the book even more. It plays with different tropes beautifully, twisting them into something new but still recognizable. The characters are l stereotypes but not the ones you’d expect, and I think this may make it hard for some readers to relate to them. I found them to be fascinating— broken weird misfits with an ennui that all 20-somethings experience. Plus there’s a dog. Cantero’s writing won’t be for everyone— his metaphors are weird, but remarkably apt and razor sharp, and his word choice absurd (I’ve never looked up so many words in a single book) but brilliant. There are parts where you go from narrative to screen play, and even though this initially took me out of the story, I came to appreciate it at the end when the book reached its cinematographic climax. I highly recommend it for a bizarre, trippy horror read. I want a sequel to it! 

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Content Warnings

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

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

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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

daffodilcherry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Sexual violence

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

calamity_cal's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Bullying and Lesbophobia

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. 

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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

gbrl's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Transphobia and Lesbophobia