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ribbenkast's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
There's a sexual relationship between two characters that isn't consensual/the concent is extremely dubious. This is becausestrawberrytheauthor's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing
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
starsandscarsbookclub's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
pjdotcom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
jgalla's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
tallnecked_pancakeface'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? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Self harm, Medical content, and Suicide attempt
lizziaha's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Car accident
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
psliz'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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping