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flying_booke's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Violence, Dementia, and War
fieldsandfeels's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I know this one was super popular a while back, but it really took me by surprise how invested I became in these children. I expected much darker, but instead they are a lovely little found family with a lot of heart and incredible capability. I’m such a sucker for a found family. I will continue to follow this little family on their adventures for sure!
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and War
jcrawford31'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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Abandonment, and War
chdeaver's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
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? It's complicated
4.5
I liked this book a lot. I love how it intertwines history and magic, past and present, family love and trauma, friendship and love, lies and truth, secrets and discoveries. The climax is satisfying and kept me feeling tense and on my toes, and the everything isn't wrapped up in a tidy bow at the end. It left me wanting more.
It did a great job of helping me feel the feelings the protagonist felt, and those feelings were complicated and his decisions were not easy. Overall, I very much enjoyed it.
There are hints of deep prose here and there in the book and honestly, I wouldn't have minded it having a little more to help the book feel more powerful.
It did a great job of helping me feel the feelings the protagonist felt, and those feelings were complicated and his decisions were not easy. Overall, I very much enjoyed it.
There are hints of deep prose here and there in the book and honestly, I wouldn't have minded it having a little more to help the book feel more powerful.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Antisemitism, and War
Minor: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
edmund_pearce's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, and Dementia
Moderate: Genocide and War
moody_gobling's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
One last read for 2023. I found this book easily digestible, light on horror, big on magical realism. I’m glad I was able to read this book, as it seemed to have been quite popular at its release, but nothing jumped out at me as “remarkable”. The reveal of the main big bad at the end was nice, if not subdued. The MC is just shy of having “chosen one” syndrome. The characters had a charm to them that I think TJ Clune has done better in later works. If you are a fan of lost-boys, time travel, WW2 and teenage boys not feeling heard, this one is for you.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Stalking, and War
tay_nel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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? N/A
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder and War
Minor: Child death
bookishbutterfly's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Murder
Minor: War
micaelamariem's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I’m not really sure why, but this book really didn’t grab my attention. The premise was good but I think the writing fell flat. While using the pictures was a great way to do something different, it was a stretch and felt too forced sometimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War
erebus53's review
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.
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.
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