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ash_ton's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
First, though, no matter how much I complain, I did like the book. I like the concept of the
These are things I know others have talked about, so I'm just going to be another voice agreeing with them. The random insertion of the script format throughout the book wa sso jarring and unecessary. It did nothing for the storyline. If all the dialogue would have been in script format, sure. But that would've sucked and I would have hated it lol. In the same vein, I hated the amount of ridiculous "big" words added that seemingly were only there to beef up the sentences. Also, the made up words as well. Myriaphonic, as far as I can tell from googling, is not a real word. After some clicks, I found out a miraphone is a type of tuba, so maybe that's what he was going for? But like, bud. Pick something else.
The one random 4th wall break 75% into the book was also super jarring and unnecessary to me. If you're going to break the 4th wall, only doing it once isn't gonna cut it. Is the book self-aware or not?
My one last small gripe is how
One last thing. I'm confused about the ending. I get that Tim is Sean's great-grandson. Fine. Makes sense. But
Bottom line: I liked the book/story, I just mostly hated some of the writing style. Usually, I can get over that and in this case I did. I'd still recommend it, especially if you like Scooby Doo and/or retellings.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
danimacuk's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
TOPICS/SUBJECTS: Let's cut to the chase: this book has issues with how it talks about LGBTQIA+ subjects and characters. I first got an inkling of this when some character remarks bewilderment that another character didn't "transition" after her youth. All because the non-transitioning character was a tomboy.
Moderate: Transphobia
itsheyfay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicide, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Abandonment
Minor: Racism and Kidnapping
amweber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
There’s a ton of problematic stuff in this book that I detail in the spoiler tag.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide, Transphobia, and Violence
Minor: Racial slurs and Racism
faeriviera's review against another edition
2.5
It was really disappointing because I loved the idea of what was essentially Scooby Doo meets Stephen King's It, ESPECIALLY given the build up to a sapphic romance, but a bad ending can truly ruin a story for me.
Moderate: Transphobia
emsim's review against another edition
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Sexual harassment
wooter42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Death and Transphobia
chloe_s's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Violence
Minor: Racism and Transphobia
marykendrick666_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Transphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, and Toxic friendship
pageglue's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Meddling Kids is basically an adult horror Scooby Doo novel, featuring the kinds of shenanigans that the gang got up to. The only praise I’ll give is that the plot was very gripping, enough to take me to end of this 450 page book, but even that was spoilt by its stupid ending.
While the writing was often cinematic, it also drew a lot of attention to itself, for instance ‘the wheezer (a monster) didn’t even make it until the end of this paragraph.” There were also these random switches to giving the dialogue in the form of a screenplay, including directions for the actors in parenthesis, which was just so weird.
There’s so much offensive shit in this book too. At first I thought it was emulating the vernacular of the 90s, and it felt unnecessary but not out of place. But there’s some rough intersexphobia and transphobia as well that basically casts two characters as crazy/evil freaks.
Don’t read this awful book.
INSTEAD, read The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, and it’s sequel, The Barrow Will Send What it May by Margaret Killjoy. A gang of queer, anarchist punks solve supernatural mysteries. It’s a great time with some very cool characters. The biggest issue is that they’re both novellas, and I so wanted more!
Moderate: Sexism and Transphobia