Reviews tagging 'Death'

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls

23 reviews

leilah_m's review

reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity and Car accident

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, and Infertility

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Torture

chainsawheartbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

2.5

I’m honestly not even sure what to say. 

Was this a good insight into certain gender roles and the thoughts people have when their lives become almost stagnant? Yes.

Did I enjoy it? Not really.

The first half was much better than the latter, which felt more like I was just witnessing the protagonist wander between places, and I think there’s certainly an audience for this book, I just don’t think I fall into it.

I will say, however, that it was well written; Ingalls knew how to craft a character while letting the plot follow the person, as opposed to the other way around.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

olivetree614's review

challenging dark funny reflective fast-paced

4.5

crazy and i loved it. the writing is neat and piercing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Violence

jlfields925's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Grief, and Car accident

kaiyakaiyo's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I did not like this. Deeply unsatisfying read. I don’t usually rate books based on plot/ending alone, but man was that so little payoff for a seemingly interesting premise.

I liked that in the end Larry was too other, too non-human to continue functioning as Dorothy’s escape or to truly care about human life. I love when authors depict the realistic divide between humanoids; other beings have no reason to talk, think, or act like we do given their separate evolutionary path. I also liked the prose; the sentences were so crisp and concise. It felt like snack reading.

That being said, -2 stars for:
- the sheer amount of fucking salad and veggie descriptions 
- the sometimes hard to keep track of quippy dialogue between Dorothy and Estelle
- the car crash… what an unnecessarily messy conclusion to a whimper of a set of affairs
- Could Sandra have been his kid??????? GROSS
- Estelle also fucking Dorothy’s husband. her knowing who the man was and not telling Dorothy was enough of a betrayal to warrant the silly ending. The rest felt contrived 
- Dorothy finally being free of her cheating, unsupportive husband and perfidious bff, only to be miserable at home looking for a froggy fling that isn’t coming back. she has a lot to work on internally, but the book ended with her not even trying. just going through the same motions.

idk this just wasn’t my cup of tea. i got to the last page and audibly scoffed. what was the point in all that retrospection on humanity and friendship and love just to end the book sad & yearning for a frog in between haunting your uncaught sex offender husbands grave. ugh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

Moderate: Child abuse and Death

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, and Forced institutionalization

another_dahlia's review

mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

toyin_'s review

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

It was another women x monster book that was really about the trappings of domesticity and womanhood.

Kinda bleak ending, compared to rest of the book. 

We need an edition with the weird sex she should be having with toned and tall frog man. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Car accident

Moderate: Misogyny, Rape, and Violence

melodyriggs's review

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

 This was a weird one, but at the heart of the absurd story of a woman recovering from tragedy falling in love with a frogman, is the story of wanting to be loved. Mr. Caliban is dealing with their personal tragedies by having affairs. Mrs. Caliban is just sad, until an amphibious man shows up in her kitchen after escaping from an institute. They begin affair with her hiding the frog man in the guest bedroom until it no longer becomes safe for the frog man to stay there. On the whole, it's good writing, just a weird story. Not sure if this would be a good one for seniors in AP or not (I've been reading short novels to kind of look at whether or not they would be good ones to add in for juniors and seniors whose class loads don't provide a lot of time for reading but want good literature). 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death

kananineko's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Miscarriage and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Car accident

mermaidsherbet's review

emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail