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obfuscatress'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
3.75
While I can't say I regret reading this book, I could not in all honesty recommend it to someone else. However, now having read the book and found so much of the later plot and character development interesting, I will probably read the sequel too. If you're happy to be infuriated with the way one of the central characters is written for most of a book, maybe this one is for you too.
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Blood, and Abandonment
Minor: War
foggyoblio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Confinement
abicaro17's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
katerina_l's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
erebus53'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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The backdrop is clearly superheroic. You have a fictional city called Merit, which is an unremarkable, American town. The main characters have alliterative names, or names or descriptions that have significance to their powers, but from the get-go all the Vs made me feel like this is a lot more like Alan Moore than Stan Lee. For starters the "heros" are sociopathic before they even get started. There is nothing quite normal about these two college room-mates.
The story is tropey enough that it's fairly easy to get a handle on, even though it's told non-chronologically. Entire sections are flashbacks to 10 years ago. There are short memories that are repeated in different chapters.. one of which was long enough that I thought I might have accidentally lost my place and be reading the wrong bit. That was mildly irritating; a phrase can anchor something poetically without an entire callback.. that might work better if it was a movie (montage it, pitch it a little lower, put some echo on or something?) or maybe a graphic novel.. (make it yellowed like old paper.. or throw the colours out like a faded photo with no blue in it..)
The middle part of the story begins to lag a bit. But it picks up a little more as the things start to culminate. I do wish the ending felt a little more planned but it starts to become a little unclear what is going to happen. I do like that the story feels out the edges or limitations of the powers that people have, and explores a little of the synergy you can get when more than one person with a gift is working together. I think it would be marvelous if there were more people with normal strengths rather than uncanny things, but that is still included in the story.
This is a very different story to something like Hench (which is about jobbing for the supervillains), and has some similarity in YA stories like Songbirds and Snakes in which the mindset of the main character is toxic and dangerous. There is some bloody violence and necromancy in this story, so if you don't like dark then this isn't your book.
Clock this one up if you want to do a reading challenge where the hero is a bad guy, and it's set in a City starting with M (yes that's a challenge prompt for the 52 BookClub Chanllenge 2024).
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Suicide, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
wheeliebridge's review against another edition
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence and Violence
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
itisnatal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment
gabym's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Self harm and Religious bigotry
Minor: Abandonment
theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Torture, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Grief, and Alcohol
ladynavalon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail