Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

22 reviews

monarchbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know what I was expecting going into this book but it was not what I got. Every page shocked me. A bit wordy and heavy on metaphors. Unexpected queer rep. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Deadnaming

knkoch's review

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.5

I loved this. It jumped out at me on the shelves. I loved the Scooby Doo pastiche, with strong additional vibes of Stranger Things, Buffy, The Goonies, and especially It. I've read or loved all of those stories at one point, so why not one more?

The most notable thing to me about Meddling Kids was the wild, animate prose. It was an adjustment at first, but I came to love the ride. Cantero made almost every inanimate object, including one character's hair, a house, trees, weather, and a car, seem alive and moody. That's not even touching on the 'Scooby' of the story, who I think has just the right amount of cleverness. This was quite cinematic, and I liked imagining the big action set pieces or how charismatic actors would dig into performing these characters. 

All in all, this was a fun summer read that felt like something between a car chase and a road comedy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

tarsharks's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Scooby Doo x Lovecraft was an interesting premise that I have not seen before. The first part of the book was a little slow and hard to get into but once all the action started I couldn't put the book down! A big complaint I have is the random format switching. Even in the middle of a conversation it will go from script style to tradtional novel and I found it to be very jarring. Overall I thought the book was ok and felt like he could have done more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse

dexkit10's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

madladhatter's review

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

courtwj's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

2.75

Interesting premise and mythology but terrible LGBTQIA+ rep and distracting writing style at times.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

matcha_cat's review

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

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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

readerfromtheblacklagoon's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

preciouslittleingenue's review

adventurous dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

Oh this was just so FUN!

It's totally not something I'd pick up on my own. The presence of tentacles on the front cover, making it a "monster book" would have immediately put me off it if it wasn't a rec from a friend. And let me tell you, I am so glad they did recommend it.

The start is STRONG and throws you right into it without mincing words. It's almost like you've been thrown a pile of newspaper clippings and have to piece it together as the narrative unfolds and then watch it all fall into place. Loved that. At first this stylistic choice made me feel very removed from the characters, but this didn't last long at all. I was DOWN BAD for Kerri and Andy. Right from the beginning where Andy has that incredible passage personifying Kerri's hair...I knew I would go down with this ship. I, myself, have been head over heels for far too many curly redheaded femmes. Nate was not *unloveable*, but he just didn't shine like the girls did. But that's okay. It's about time the sapphics outshone the men in a novel, especially one written by a man!

The mystery had me guessing! And I wasn't right at first! It definitely ended up being more whacky and goofy than anticipated, but when the book is a direct reference to Scooby Doo and there's a literal Zoinx river...I didn't care too much haha.

So many of Andy's one-liners had me rolling on the floor. I bookmarked them in the audiobook but it returned. Will add later. The group banter was excellent. The METAPHORS had me laughing. The way he described a thought being stopped from coming out of Andy's mouth like a person being stopped by a burly bouncer...WHO COMES UP WITH THAT! It's brilliant and so funny.

The hurt/comfort bed sharing scene???? I WAS ON MY KNEES!

Thoughts on certain aspect of twist ending:

Important to note: Lindsay Ellis has a great video unpacking this topic, but the twist ending DOES contribute to the harmful stereotype that all trans women are just evil men dressed as women, who dress as women for the express purpose of doing said evil. Of course I don't think that was the author's intention, but in the world we live in, we need to at least acknowledge that these tropes can still find their way into media, however innocent and dormant they seem.

Other than that! The twists were GREAT. Only saw them coming like a page ahead of when they actually came. And the VERY LAST ONE AT THE END. I WAS GIGGLING LIKE CRAZY. WHAT A WAY TO END.

I should have known that the SCOOBY DOO BOOK would have a talking dog.

This is what I'm talking about. A level of unhinged I would never usually go for but I'm so glad I did. Amazing. So close to perfect.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Lesbophobia

hauntedboi's review

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders