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vickybuka's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Abandonment, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Cursing
knerys's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Probably the closest thing to a perfect book you could get. I adored this story immensely, and the whole time I just kep thinking how I wish I could write something like this.
StoryGraph asks if I "found the characters lovable" and while I answered yes the true answer is I would die for every single character in this book. All of them.
StoryGraph asks if I "found the characters lovable" and while I answered yes the true answer is I would die for every single character in this book. All of them.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse
winters_night's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, and Panic attacks/disorders
artemis_rose_reads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Read this if:
You are looking for something heartwarming about found family, celebrating bodily differences, with a gay romance between middle age men. It also shows that a mediocre person with privilege has the power and a responsibility to stand up for those harmed by institutions and racism.
You are looking for something heartwarming about found family, celebrating bodily differences, with a gay romance between middle age men. It also shows that a mediocre person with privilege has the power and a responsibility to stand up for those harmed by institutions and racism.
Don’t read this if:
You are looking for a story that completely and satisfactorily addresses the many ways that the Sixties Scoop harmed indigenous peoples, look elsewhere. It does put the responsibilities of fixing the problems onto the privileged, however they are made into a hero because their efforts are sadly rare.
You are looking for a story that completely and satisfactorily addresses the many ways that the Sixties Scoop harmed indigenous peoples, look elsewhere. It does put the responsibilities of fixing the problems onto the privileged, however they are made into a hero because their efforts are sadly rare.
With that it mind:
If you can understand that this book is unsatisfactory when it comes to properly addressing the many horrors of stealing and institutionalizing peoples because the people in power have decided that their birth families cannot care properly for their children. However it does a fairly decent job in showing the long term emotional and mental damage that this clauses in the children, but also the adults who have also had to live through this situation.
Does it solve everything and puts all the appropriate blame on the system and then fixes the problem? Nope, not even close. This is basically a love letter to the average person who does what is in their personal power to improve and protect the happiness of those who have been hurt by government and biases against the “other”.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
There is a lot of mentioning of potential triggers as it talks a lot about the traumas of foster care and a system purposely controlling underprivileged bodies and their rights. The current environment is safe, however all the children are battling the trauma from previous placements and this home is still under the control of the system. There is current bully and hate from the locals. Children also acting menacing/threatening death as a response to their previous traumas.oliverreeds's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
if i could rate this book higher than a five, i would do it. everything about this is incredible. i am crying from happiness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Bullying, Hate crime, Racism, and Religious bigotry
meganrose7's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is by far the most adorable thing I’ve ever read in my life. I’m absolutely in love with this book, the story is a classic, the magical aspects fit very well within it, and it’s just so fun! I can already tell it’s going to be a comfort book for me from now on. Every character in this book has become dear to me, they’re all so different and funny and wonderful. I don’t know what else to say other than I absolutely loved this book and will be rereading it 100 times.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
shaunaxx's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I wasn’t in the right mood or mindset to read it. So I’ll pick it up later
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Body shaming, and Fire/Fire injury
stubbornjerk's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
This book reads like a dated children's movie that feels as whimsical as Klaus and tries very hard to be progressive. It's been touted as a YA novel and as difficult as some of these topics might be for more children, marking it for YA while having older white men as protagonists seems like a stretch. At best, it's middle grade.
I appreciate its blunt cartoonish-ness though, it suspends your disbelief for a while. An orphanage for difficult, magical children visited by a dull, old caseworker who does his best to do right by them. His world gets a little less dull when meeting the unorthodox orphanage at Marsyas and its owner (or, master, however weird that sounds on paper). It writes itself like a rom-com, and it kind of is. A really cartoonish, quirky, and charming rom-com with a lot of little kids running around.
I found myself growing to like this book even after the initial chapters. It was slow-going at first, and the turn wasn't as subtle as it was fast. The narration itself wanting both to put us in Linus' head (especially in cases of extreme anxiety) while also keeping us out of it (in this case, when he starts warming up to the children).
A little nitpick of mine while reading this book was that I couldn't place its time period or place. It deems itself to be placed in the South but the speech patterns for some were suggestively British. There are scenes where it suggests that it is set in the present (record stores telling one of the children that they liked old music and the existence of computers), but Linus still has to send correspondences and reports through the post and if it were placed in America, the speech patterns would also suggest that this would technically be a period piece on top of its magical realism.It all comes to a head during the later chapters, when Arthur and Linus talk about how Arthur is the first magical being to ever have run their own orphanage and that he was silenced and prohibited from revealing it. Holding the suggestion that of all the years these institutions have existed not a single activist group had arisen. Linus talks of magical beings in professional roles but says nothing of activist groups or names any.
Again, this is a cartoonish rom-com of a children's-not-YA book banking on the fiction of a fake marginalized group, but so maybe expecting it to be a little less like that would be disingenuous. The criticism exists though.
Here, on the other hand are some very problematic things I found about it:
I appreciate its blunt cartoonish-ness though, it suspends your disbelief for a while. An orphanage for difficult, magical children visited by a dull, old caseworker who does his best to do right by them. His world gets a little less dull when meeting the unorthodox orphanage at Marsyas and its owner (or, master, however weird that sounds on paper). It writes itself like a rom-com, and it kind of is. A really cartoonish, quirky, and charming rom-com with a lot of little kids running around.
I found myself growing to like this book even after the initial chapters. It was slow-going at first, and the turn wasn't as subtle as it was fast. The narration itself wanting both to put us in Linus' head (especially in cases of extreme anxiety) while also keeping us out of it (in this case, when he starts warming up to the children).
A little nitpick of mine while reading this book was that I couldn't place its time period or place. It deems itself to be placed in the South but the speech patterns for some were suggestively British. There are scenes where it suggests that it is set in the present (record stores telling one of the children that they liked old music and the existence of computers), but Linus still has to send correspondences and reports through the post and if it were placed in America, the speech patterns would also suggest that this would technically be a period piece on top of its magical realism.
Again, this is a cartoonish rom-com of a children's-not-YA book banking on the fiction of a fake marginalized group, but so maybe expecting it to be a little less like that would be disingenuous. The criticism exists though.
Here, on the other hand are some very problematic things I found about it:
- That the concept of children in homes like these were allegorical to the abduction and institutionalization of Indigenous children is a tad concerning, seeing as there is not a single child of color.
- There's a lot of rampant fatphobia in this book, coming from the narrative character and the people he used to work with.
- There were a lot of Whoopi Epiphany Speeches that kind of feel awkward.
- We also have a Black woman who fulfills a caretaker role
and is a being of magic , and though the book doesn't treat her badly, one should be mindful of the fallings of tropes like these.
Overall, despite its flaws, it's a cheesy rom-com of a book that reads like a dated children's movie on the vein of Klaus and maybe a bit of The Parent Trap. It is what it is and despite all of that, is kind of stronger than the sum of its parts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, and Violence
vkodhai's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Xenophobia, and Confinement
Moderate: Bullying and Homophobia
Minor: Body shaming, Violence, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Emotional abuse
debbie13410's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, and Panic attacks/disorders