phantompansy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Medical content, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, and Transphobia
rainbowalcremie1995's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Spoiler
capitalismI wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. I definitely liked it overall, but it took me a while to finish it. I bought the book a few months back, read the first few chapters, put it down for a bit when the pacing got a bit slow, and finally started over and finished the book over the last few weeks.
I have two chapters I would consider my favorites. The first is Carter’s chapter, which works as a great standalone story about an awful, awful person becoming a victim to something he created. Something I love about that chapter is that
Spoiler
Donna is basically working as intended and taking over his life, creating someone to be a better person in his place if he won’t do it himselfSpoiler
breaking into the middle of the building, seeing the pipes inside, and deciding to join the bodies he’d been followingSpoiler
Janek went through a traumatic work place accident similar to the ones the ghosts he’s following were victims of, and I found that to be a stronger character motivation than the vague concept of people suffering somewhere else.I feel like the ending of the book wrapped things up a little neatly, but I didn’t mind. I loved the scenes of all these different characters we’ve been in the heads of getting to interact with each other in a strange setting. It might have been sort of anticlimactic and convenient to
Spoiler
have the characters just use the ghosts they’ve been haunted by to each thematically beat Tobias to death, but it was still pretty funAs a last aside, I (like everyone else) listened to the Magnus Archives podcast sometime before reading this book. I liked the podcast, but I never considered myself a huge fan of it, and I fell behind and never finished it, either. If you’re a big fan of the podcast, though, I will say this book is pretty similar in tone and themes, with both using the real world horrors of capitalism and class divides in addition to the supernatural elements.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Genocide, Suicide, Slavery, and Deadnaming
You probably listened to the Magnus Archives first. You know about what to expect.gracecrandall's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Classism, Violence, Terminal illness, Colonisation, Murder, Gore, Police brutality, Confinement, Blood, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Transphobia, Death of parent, Racism, Deadnaming, Grief, and Deportation
jan_coco_day's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Classism, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Dementia and Drug abuse
This book does NOT contain sex, sexualisation, or sexual violence.subobscura's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Blood, Violence, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
evelphysicist's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Violence, Murder, and Body horror
Moderate: Slavery, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, and Medical trauma
Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Grief, and Colonisation
artmajorese's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
While I enjoyed it, it didn't quite hit 5 stars for me. It felt both too fast and too slow. By the time I got familiar with a narrator, it changed to a different narrator in a different chapter. By the last chapter, when all the threads were tied together, I had forgotten which character was which. Things happened fast for each narrator, but the build of all information together was too slow for my taste, so that when we hit the big reveal it felt rushed rather than foreshadowed and earned.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Trafficking, Classism, Colonisation, Police brutality, Medical trauma, War, Genocide, and Xenophobia
dogearedbooks'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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Bullying, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Addiction, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Violence, Cannibalism, and Grief
captainbird's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, Gore, Death, Ableism, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Slavery
miss_sunshine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Cannibalism, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Colonisation, Genocide, Medical content, and Toxic friendship