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v_neptune's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, and War
Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
lynxpardinus's review
4.5
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Blood and Fire/Fire injury
c_dmckinney's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Slavery, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
A named character is eaten alive fairly early, also a boy eats a spider against his will while he is a lizardhousedesignerking's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Someone had told me that each book stood alone much like most of the Goosebumps books, but that's apparently not true. Apparently, it's one big story that spans about 62 books (64 if you count the Altermorphs books, but those weren't written by Applegate). I was also told that each book was about a character slowly morphing into another species, and THAT apparently isn't true, either. This is the stuff that creates trust issues...
We have Jake, the main character, with his friends Marcos, Tobias, and Cassie. There's also Rachel, Jake's cousin, who is a mutual friend of Cassie's. This entire story (62-ish books) starts with all five of them at the mall. After a time at the arcade, they decide to head home. They can either walk the long way home, or get home faster by sneaking through this abandoned construction site. They choose the latter despite Jake's better judgement. What follows is definitely not what I thought would follow.
A space ship flies over head, and before you know it, their seemingly normal life morphs into something off the Syfy/Sci-Fi channel with three different types of aliens eventually appearing. I personally found the one with hundreds of teeth in a huge mouth to be particularly creepy. Honestly, even though this is a "kids' book series" (phooey!), I thought parts of this were a bit creepy and somewhat cringe inducing, and I was a bit surprised by some of the things that appeared in this book. Let's just say some of the things in here would be more expected in a teen fiction than in young adult.
4 out of 5 stars.
Moderate: Death, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
kstericker's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Vomit, and Abandonment