Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

9 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I tried to pick up a copy of this one as a graphic novel, as it was listed as on the shelves (at Christchurch South Library), but an unhelpful librarian refuse to help me track it down after I had flipped through everything on the shelves and come up wanting.. so I threw up my arms in agitation and just downloaded the audiobook. It was probably a wise decision in the long run.

The story focuses on a teen who is brought up in Florida and who has a close relationship with his Jewish grandfather who survived WWII. The man tells him fanciful stories and and shows him photographs of a children's home where he was raised with kids with special powers. The photographs look fake and a bit dodgy, so nobody believes his stories of special powers and monsters, assuming that they are the mentally divergent accommodations of a traumatised holocaust survivor. As the old man gets increasingly paranoid and the family are considering putting him in a care facility, his grandson goes to check on him, only to find that one of the monsters has got him.

Once his therapist okays the trip, he follows a set of clues in his grandfather's last words, and he travels with his father to a remote island in the UK where his father wishes to observe the local birdlife. There he puts together a puzzle that brings him into contact with people his grandfather once knew, and entangles him in further adventure.

Being set in Florida I notice that there is quite a bit of narrative about the treatment of the elderly. There is a focus on listening to the opinions of older people, and the ways that they are treated in society (there are a lot of rest homes and retirees in Florida, so this follows). I also encountered the term "lenai" for the first time. Intuiting that it was a type of verandah, I looked it up and realised that this common feature of houses in tropical climes was not unknown to me.. my Uncle has one similar to the pictures that I see in an internet web-search, and he lives in Australia.

The story is interesting, deals with alternate timelines and portals, and has a little bit of teen kissing, secret monsters, shape changers,  levitating and snorkelling, and some stuff with common or garden necromancy, scary monsters, and sheep poo. This is the first part of a bigger story so it's not surprising that the end of it is a bit of a cliffhanger. I'd like to know what  happens next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Kidnapping

kibberbl's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Excrement, Antisemitism, Stalking, and War

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Suicide

vanesst's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Alcohol, and War

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Dementia, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Infidelity, Medical content, and Abandonment

owlien's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.5

The beginning took me a while to get through, but when I reached a certain point, I couldn't put the book down!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Antisemitism, and War

Minor: Confinement, Incest, and Excrement

tays_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Excrement, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, and Cannibalism

paulina_laukova's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Child death and Antisemitism

Minor: Excrement

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Jacob grows up hearing his grandpa's fantastical stories about his childhood in an orphanage for children with special abilities. When his grandpa dies, his last words are instructions for Jacob to go to the orphanage and find out the truth. On the remote Welsh island, Jacob finds the old orphanage crumbling and abandoned. His explorations lead him to discover more about the history of the mysterious orphanage and discover that his grandfather—and the world—are not what they seemed.

Honestly, this isn't really my favorite genre; though it is fantasy, it feels more paranormal. There were also scenes that I found unnecessarily gruesome. I liked the world-building, though it could be confusing at times. The first half of the book was relatively slow, but it sped up a lot towards the end. Overall, it was interesting enough but I wasn't hooked enough that I'm rushing to get the sequel.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just my judgement of how happy the ending is because I always wish someone would tell me that before I read books):

The ending was bittersweet, and while not a cliffhanger per se, it's definitely unfinished and feels like the adventure is just starting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, and Medical content

Minor: Antisemitism

alisazhup's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Mental illness, Excrement, and Antisemitism