Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Screaming Staircase

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

25 reviews

midgereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This is such a good book. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It’s scary, funny, and really easy to get through. It was impossible to put it down. I hope the Netflix series does it justice (I know it was cancelled after the first season, which I’m really mad about).

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kassidyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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starsnstitchin's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

3.5

What i enjoyed: the mystery is tied into the plot quite nicely and the transitions flow very smoothly, making it easy to want to keep reading and play along with the characters. Twists and surprises aren't jarring and can be figured out, but its still subtle enough to be enjoyed.
What I didn't enjoy: the characters didn't always seem like real people and it's a bit obvious that Lockwood is supposed to be like Sherlock Holmes. Despite the set up for the setting and age of characters it wasn't quite played right to feel like it was actually an alternative world where children were the heroes. Some events that should have had consequences didn't and vice versa. One major thing that granted on me the more it kept happening was how one main character has different strengths and weaknesses than the other 2, but is always described as incompetent and fat and it's outright stated as well as implied that him being fat is part of why he's incompetent and inferior to his peers. The other characters get plenty of descriptors and traits, but all he gets is various ways of saying he's fat and inferior.
Overall though, it was an enjoyable read!

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rkreads's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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starlitpage's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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mdcasey's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

1.0

I would’ve given it probably 3 stars but the rampant fatphobia is so astonishing…. main character has palpable disgust for her colleague’s fatness and it’s played as if we’re meant to agree. Ick.

I liked the Netflix show (they changed a few plot points unnecessarily but vastly improved on others, like the fatphobia and the plodding exposition), so one might be better off just watching the show unless you’re like me and just went to read the books because you finished the show and wanted to know what happened

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