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emily_journals'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? No
2.0
Except this book was so disappointing in execution. From reading other reviews, I'm so glad I read the audiobook version of this, because the stage direction inserts and made up words weren't as noticeable, so I'll give the narrator mad props for making those things really unnoticeable. I thought the book started off on the right track, but around the halfway point in this book is when I really started noticing all the negatives.
First off, for being set in the 90s (and flashback-esque scenes from the 70s), I personally did not feel much nostalgia around any certain time period. This book could have mostly been reset from the 90s and plopped into modern day (or really, any other time period) with very little change; this is 100% fine, except one of the selling points promised by this book is to be nostalgic for the 90s specifically (which I personally did not find it to be).
Secondly, the ending of this book. Everything that happened in the last ~20% of the book was chaotic, unbelievable, and hard to follow.
Seriously, so much of the end of this book was just fight scene after fight scene, with little substantial buffer between, which I personally find really boring to read (or listen to) for a significant amount of time, especially when every fight scene is "gang fights creatures, then run, then fight new hoard of same creatures, then run.... repeat".
Lastly, this book has some dangerous discussion of mental health and some questionable representation of queer people. The mental health discussion in this book is unnuanced and the whole introduction scene to the asylum has some problematic descriptions of people with and without mental health issues. The main villain ended up using transness as a device to live forever and be evil, which was super unnecessary. The lesbian character in this book is also very much a caricature of a "typical lesbian" media portrayal.
Overall, I wish I had done more research into this book before picking it up instead of taking the promises given by the author/publisher at face value.
Graphic: Ableism, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
laurajones's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Car accident, and Colonisation
ghouligan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Grief, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
descriptions of institutionalized people/mental health facilitieswillowmae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Grief