Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

6 reviews

add_a_little_spook's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Excrement, War, Xenophobia, Classism, Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

Minor: Gaslighting

reggiethebird's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.5

So they killed a character towards the end of this book ,

killed the dog

and I could tell it was meant to be an big emotional moment, but then I asked my self "What did this character do before this? Why does their death matter? Why did their action matter again?" And I couldn't really answer any of these. Then they killed more characters, and I just asked the same questions again, with the same lack of answers. I'm pretty sure the book would have ended roughly the same without the actions of our two main characters, or even our 5 or so side characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Child death, Death, and Murder

Minor: Torture

jayecard's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.0

The world was really cool and well described, but sadly I felt that the characters were incredibly bland. There was a lot of detail when it came to places and environments that I loved, but when it came to characters' thoughts and feelings, it suddenly was incredibly simplistic. Tom, the main character, is just sorta there for most of the plot and does virtually nothing, nor does he have a lot of interesting thoughts or emotions about it all. It didn't help that the ending felt incredibly dissatisfying.

Bonus points for letting a major female character be way outside of beauty standards though. The fact that Hester's face is described without trying to pretty up her scars and disfigurements was something I genuinely appreciated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Excrement

Moderate: Violence, Murder, War, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Child death

Minor: Slavery

directorpurry's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Trafficking, Child death, Animal death, Death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death of parent

paskendus's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really hoped I would love this book, but it was just ok. 
I enjoyed the world and it did feel well developed.
Everything else just was a bit meh. The story was predictable and there were so many plot conveniences I did not feel the stakes at all. 
There were plenty of deaths and destruction but it left me indifferent because the characters felt flat and I did not connect with them or feel for them. 
The writing was simple, it really felt like I was reading a middle grade, which is not bad, just an odd tone to have for a book with so many death scenes, that were described on page. The tense change between past tense and present tense in some chapters, kept pulling me out of the story. I understand it is a creative choice, but I did not vibe with it. Another thing that kept pulling me out of the story was - characters commenting on a character's scar without any good reason. Constantly. As if it decides a person's value.
I will probably continue with the series, because I want to know more about the world, but I do hope character work improves in the later books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Bullying

lollalong's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, and Death