Reviews tagging 'War'

What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo

7 reviews

hookerkitty's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Physical abuse, and War

_p0ssum_'s review against another edition

4.25

Wow this is not what I expected but I definetly don't hate it. Some scenes I didn't like ( Eleanor and Arthur romance plot ) but if you read it fully and understood it makes more sense ( kinda ). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, and Child death

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, and War

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

I absolutely loved What Big Teeth. It’s unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s supernatural horror but not quite a fairytale retelling and not quite a werewolf book and… I don’t know. It was dark and a bit grotesque and kept me guessing. I really enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy and War

Author is transgender and identifies as nonbinary, using they/them pronouns. Certain editions of their books use their deadname (like this one - StoryGraph has it right, but the physical copy was printed with the author’s deadname).

dementis93's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Slavery, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia and Infidelity

Minor: Grief and War

michaelion's review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

3.75

I adore this book. Not so much for the story, but for the writing! What beautiful writing! In all my years never have my eyes flown across the page so fast. I even stopped to go back and read the descriptions. I hate descriptions. I usually just skip them. Don't get me wrong, the plot itself is good too, but I wasn't expecting the writing alone to appeal to me so much. I was so gripped! This story left my body feeling empty and hollow but also my heart is warm with love?

I didn't like that for so long it all felt confusing. It felt like something was missing, like something was supposed to be between the lines, but not in the metaphorical sense of a book; like there was literally supposed something in between the spacing of the sentences that was missing. I figure, it's a horror/thriller type book, so maybe other horror/thrillers are like that, and even though I knew answers would come at the end it wasn't so frustrating that I wanted to stop. But I did want to add that note in my review.

I also personally don't like when people don't answer questions, and that happens throughout the book. It works as a plot device when you wanna do the misunderstanding / miscommunication type trope, and again I knew all the lore questions would be answered when the pages were getting really thin, but many if not all the characters except Arthur are aloof to their core. Stubbornly aloof. Like it made me dislike the characters a bit more.

Even still I breezed through 200 pages before I realized the sun was coming up again.

Of the handful of things I disliked, that all is made up for in how much I loved the writing. The writing really did something for me. I would love to read another story in this world, even if it's not including any of these same characters. I'm gonna read Szabo's next book. They've got a real craft for words.

I love that everyone's either fruity or implied to be fruity. 5 stars for the fruity family.

In my journal notes i simply wrote "VORE?!?!!" idk leave it to a fellow nonbinary to write vore as a character detail!

I removed .25 because of Arthur. We could've had a happy polyamorous couple living it up in the 1910s with no family curse but no! How can you be so miserable you think "Damn, I gotta strangle that baby." And not even because he thought Rhys was dangerous, just because he was... sad. :/

The fact that Grandmere was centuries old and a supernatural creature and somehow still homophobic?! Girl. She got what was coming to her. Her other major sin was, of course, being French.

I wanna buy this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Homophobia, and War

nutm3g's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The best summarization of this book's concept is this, highly dysfunctional Addams Family with a nice helping of generational trauma. I really wanted to love this book, but there was just too much that felt lacking. It seemed as if it would be a build-up to healing old wounds, but even to the end tension in the family remained. It is a bit difficult to explain why this book did not reach its potential without giving away any spoilers. Regardless of all it lacked, the concept behind it was creative and entertaining which is why I have it 3 stars in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and War

boob's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

It's an average story.

I was first attracted to this book by the cover, really a piece of art on its own. But the writing and storyline is subpar compared to the cover.

Don't get me wrong, there's definitely potential here. The idea and the writing can definitely go somewhere, but right now the book just wasn't that entertaining. It feels a bit dragged on at times, not seeing where the plot is going. I just couldn't get into it. 

Kudos to the writer for writing something in this genre! I feel like we don't have enough content that falls into the proper dark/magic category.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Child death and Murder

Minor: Homophobia and War