Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero, Sara Segovia Esteban

4 reviews

thelittleone's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense fast-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

3.25

Very talented writer, and a great riff on Scooby Doo and Lovecraft with a few unique spins. I probably would have rated this higher if it weren’t for one thing: I cannot stand Andy.

As a take on Scooby Doo, most of the cast stays true to character as darker, more realistic versions of themselves haunted by a harrowing investigation in their teen years. However, the author combines Daphne and Velma into one character, named Kerri, and introduce Andy in Velma’s place.

Andy is introduced in a scene

fighting off  multiple grown men twice her size in a bar fight with ease.

She’s capable of about doing anything to save the day,

as she “learned to fight” when training in the military for a year (which she ran away from). Also, she broke out of prison.

Look, I get the book is about Lovecraftian horrors and that requires me to suspend my disbelief a bit, but this gets into the territory of “look at my super cool original character” aka Mary Sue. 

Also, there’s a coming of age story here about Andy, who is a non-binary lesbian, falling in love

with her childhood best friend, Kerri.

I am absolutely here for it, and at a high level I love it. There’s moments where it feels like a really candid take on the confusion about navigating the unknown between two young women who care immensely about each other. But, other times it absolutely gives “man writes lesbians” vibes. 

When Andy confesses her feelings to Kerri, she tells her that she’s been “fantasizing” about her since she was 13 years old. If a man confessed his feelings to his childhood best friend and said he’s been “fantasizing” about her since he was 13 years old, she would probably be terrified and grossed out. But a woman says it and it’s okay? There’s also a scene where Andy forces a celebratory kiss onto Kerri when Kerri has already told Andy that she doesn’t like women and it just feels like a violation of Kerri’s autonomy.

Also, there’s a graphic scene early on in the book

where Kerri has a nightmare about being violently molested.

It feels really out of place from the rest of the book, and I just can’t help but think that a woman  author would never include a scene like that in a book so why does a male author feel the need to do it?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, and Blood

matcha_cat's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

emsim's review against another edition

nope. this book is already handling gender, sexuality, and mental health poorly in the first 10%.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment

betyplush's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious 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? No

3.75

Scooby-Doo meets Call of Cthulhu. Mostly lighthearted fun, but with the premise of some pretty heavy trauma.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Suicide