Reviews tagging 'Death'

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

19 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Focuses too much on a particular topic that's triggering to me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death

Minor: Violence, Pregnancy, and Death of parent

nerodyne's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

3.75

It's hard to put into words how I feel about Mongrels. It definitely provided a take on werewolves that I haven't really ever seen before, and I think that had I read this book as a kid it would have changed something in me. The moving all the time, living paycheck to paycheck, living in shitty run down trailers and feeling like family is all you got, while worrying you aren't really the same as your family. It's definitely something I experienced in my youth, short of actually being a werewolf myself. When it comes to execution though, I struggled to fully connect with the writing style and while I usually love perspective changes and non linear stories, the ones in this felt a bit clunky and took some time to get used to. Not to mention, the story honestly got pretty nasty at times. It never felt unnecessarily obscene, it was clearly a matter of putting an animalistic lens on people, but I can't deny there were a few times I had to put down the book for a few minutes,

especially regarding the time that Libby fucked a dog and that family of werewolves broke into a Jewish cemetery to eat a recently deceased woman

. All in all, I'd probably recommend the book so long as you're someone who already likes supernatural horror to begin with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, and Physical abuse

eisenbuns's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Xenophobia, Racism, and Death

Minor: Rape

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

It's just so slow for me and not interesting enough. I don't want to keep trying to make myself read something I'm not even remotely enjoying at this point. I think if I had the audio it would've helped, but my library doesn't have it. The concept is cool, love werewolves, and liked the beginning a little bit, but everything about this book isn't doing it for me. 
Sucks because I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw. I'll try another book by this author and hopefully it isn't like Mongrels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Medical content

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Antisemitism, Bullying, Medical content, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Police brutality, Sexual content, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Drug abuse

Contains discussion of bestiality - as well as a scene where a werewolf in shift is mounted by a dog, albeit evidently against her will.
Antisemitism warning is just in case, for a chapter that involves a Jewish cemetery.

enchantressreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Animal death, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Alcoholism

Minor: Pedophilia and Rape

childofmongreldogs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

An absolutely gorgeous book in every sense of the word.

The elements of horror and sadness are so strong. Gore heavy and a difficult read in some places despite it's length and the absolute readability of it. I have so many thoughts and how the lycanthropy relates to intergenerational trauma, the mysticism of families, poverty, etc. Just absolutely masterful.

Despite the feeling of sadness I got reading the ending, it was surprising how hopeful the ending truly was. In a book that was frequently so bleak and painful, the idea that there's a possibility for a happy ending was euphoric. I don't know what to say except that this is probably my top read this year and possibly this decade.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Police brutality, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Infertility, and Injury/Injury detail

bookwormbi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I didn't get this book for most of the time I was reading it. If you're not here for a literary take on werewolves, this book isn't for you. That said, the ending absolutely made the book for me. the last two chapters finally let me know where the book was going and what it was meant to be about, and I'm going to be thinking about it for a while to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abandonment, Vomit, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Rape, Domestic abuse, Torture, Grief, Cannibalism, and Sexual violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

There's mentions of bestiality.

rennyrocket's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Death, and Body horror

nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcoholism