Reviews tagging 'Death'

Monstrous by Jessica Lewis

6 reviews

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Racism, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Homophobia

vigil's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

2.0

the dialogue was unfortunately twitter poison, flipping between therapy speak and ironic quips, and the plot couldn’t help but undermine itself at every given opportunity. the ending reads as half finished, the initial story ended up being completely irrelevant to what actually went down, and our purpose for the entire story was discarded, the book only accomplished maybe a quarter of what it initially intended to do and all of it proved to be rather useless in the long run with no bearing on the actual narrative. 
the emotional thread was all over the place, the romance proved to be quickly tiring, and at the end our main goal is implied to be accomplished offscreen after the book ends. except it wasn’t really our main goal because the original goal was made forcibly irrelevant by the narrative. at the end of the book i could only wonder what the was the fucking point? why write 400 pages of a nothingburger plot with a shit ending? why do i still think YA is a salvageable genre? what happened to the plot of the movie!

also are we still doing villain exposition monologues. even if it is YA, evil grinning cartoon villain monologuing his whole plot to the protagonist is very played out. 

it’s only getting two stars for the snake. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Murder

karcitis's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Child abuse, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Body shaming, Vomit, Slavery, Torture, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Blood, and Child death

_geminigenres's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I think this books touches on friendship, meaning of family, revenge, religious cults, sacrifice, morality, and so much more. There's a lot of trauma in this but also small joys. I was hoping that the end ended like it did. However, there's something else left undone. There could or could not be a sequel. I hope there's not because I think it ended the way it needed to.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Fatphobia

jazzyjbox's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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

I am NOT a fan of snakes by any means, yet this book managed to make me sympathize with a giant one. 

Avie is staying with her aunt and cousin in the small town of Sanctum before she can escape on her track scholarship to college. But things in Sanctum are weird. When Avie ends up a sacrifice for a giant snake, she'll do anything to survive. Including making a deal with a monster. She won't die for anyone. Not the town, not her aunt, not even for the cute girl Avie likes. 

Jessica Lewis takes morally gray to a whole new level! Avie is an incredibly strong protagonist who finds herself torn between revenge and saving the ones she cares about. She's written as having PTSD, but I think what she experiences falls more under Accute Stress Disorder that could have developed into PTSD. 

This is my first time reading this author but definitely won't be the last! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

debussy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• 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

3.0

Difficult to rate this one. It’s very gripping, and the plot kept me engaged, but I kept wanting more Bad Witch Burning and less giant snake. The world felt sketchy and the ending wasn’t super satisfying. I kept getting pulled out of the story because it felt so ridiculous at times—like it would be perfect for younger YA, but also I don’t think that’s the right audience for this book, which left me feeling odd about it throughout. 

Still looking forward to more of this author’s work.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Homophobia