Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

24 reviews

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Sexism, Self harm, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Death of parent, Colonisation, Ableism, and Abandonment

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I actually quite liked this. I still call bullshit on the only black character coincidentally being the character that has to kill themselves then heal themselves repeatedly to help the white chars but everything else was pretty good. White authors using black pain to further plot, color me surprised. Surprisingly fluff-less for a book this big, most chapters had a purpose and I liked that! Would read another in this series, but i hope it’s not this big 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Hate crime, and Racism

Moderate: Murder, Ableism, Slavery, Blood, and Gore

bonniejpg's review against another edition

Interesting story, but I struggled with some of the writing. One passage was especially confusing due to unclear pronoun usage -  the entire meaning of the passage changed depending on which character “he” referd to. I read and reread this passage so many times and still could read it either way. Very possible that it’s just me, but I ultimately decided It wasn’t worth it to keep going and risk running into similar issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Murder, Gore, and Violence

fate_of_ansley's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Racism, Cursing, and Gore

Moderate: Cannibalism and Drug use

pickupthebook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

When Ordinary Monsters was voted to be our most recent book club pick, I was hesitant at first - partly due to its size and partly because Victorian-era fantasies aren’t typically my jam. However, I was pleasantly surprised within the first few chapters. I immediately became attached to each of the characters and the situations they were thrown into. I really enjoyed that the “good versus evil” theme wasn’t quite what you expected it to be. I feel like the pacing was a little off in places, and I do think the book could’ve been at least 100 pages shorter. Overall, I still really enjoyed this and will most likely pick up the next book in the series when it comes out!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Child death

librarianlayla's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

4/4.5 stars.

Prepare yourself for a heartbreaking, raw, ride. Beautifully written, darkly descriptive, and intense.

The only reason this doesn't get the full 5 stars is because there was very little ebb and flow of emotions. It is mostly fraught, with very few light moments to break up the harshness. But I did enjoy it greatly, and am looking forward to the sequel!

For fans of Miss Peregrine's, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Nevers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Toxic relationship, Death, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Hate crime, Racism, Addiction, Racial slurs, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Torture, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Self harm

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Child death

Minor: Cursing, Grief, Rape, Sexism, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, and Stalking

unboxedjack's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Racism, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Body horror, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Gaslighting

krysley's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.

This is how I've been describing this book to people: it's a mashup of Harry Potter and X-Men with an historical fiction setting. Honestly, I think that's pretty accurate.

J.M. Miro creates some incredibly likeable and interesting characters, from Charlie to Alice to, yes, even Jacob Marber, as well as great atmosphere. However, the story gets bogged done with a back-and-forth timeline and an excessively long story. As an audiobook, I was just waiting for it to be over because it didn't seem to be moving along.

The narrator, Ben Onwukwe, has an absolutely beautiful baritone that fits perfectly in the time period. The issue is that he has atrocious voices for women and children, which often sound like gravely southern American accents for some reason. I got used to the weird voices, but it didn't exactly add to my enjoyment of the listening experience. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Racism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Violence

moiralyle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Rape, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy