Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

124 reviews

tamara_joy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Hate crime, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

fanboyriot's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

Read For:

Fantasy

Slow Burn

Found Family

Idiots in Love

Happy Ending

Think Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children vibes but kinda queer.  I just felt kinda neutral about it.  The humor was okay, the characters were okay, and the setting was kinda meh.  I just felt like I had to force myself to keep reading and if I didn’t already own the book I would have stopped.  Also, I thought there would be more queer rep to be honest so that was kinda disappointing.  Not to mention the fatphobia.

I wasn’t going to read this given the reviews I’ve been seeing recently, however, I already own the first two books so I figured I’d see if it was as bad as some of the reviews were saying.  And honestly, I just didn’t understand the hype about it.  Even not knowing what the book was based on it was barely a 3-star rating for me, it just fell flat to me.

However, learning that this was based on the Sixties Scoop and how the author decided to turn what was a cruel and tragic piece of history he read about on Wikipedia about how the Canadian government removed a bunch of indigenous children from their literal homes and away from their family only to be adopted to white, middle-class families and he then took that information and basically turned it into a happy little fantasy where the kids live not in an “orphanage” but a “home” like, dude, why?

This kind of thing is still something native people are dealing with and as a white person, it should not be something you’re involved in like this.  In America the Supreme Court literally is going to be voting soon on overturning ICWA so states can regain control to remove Native children from their homes and families, this isn’t just some fantasy.  This story could have been written way better and in a way that did romanticize trauma and make light of a literal genocide.

I just wouldn’t recommend this one.  There are some links on where I got my information from if you’re interested along with two reviews I think do a better job of explaining this than I did.

Links:

Source: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617930246/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=bookmark-ITBC&xid=0efbabda

Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixties_Scoop

Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4032060130

Another Helpful Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3601407534

Rep: Achillean, Queer MC

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

purplesaturday's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, and Hate crime

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Body shaming

tiernanhunter's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

pjv's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Confinement and Fire/Fire injury

natroze's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-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? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Not on content warnings list: adoption/foster system trauma and abuse. Note: most xenophobia and racism in the book is directed at mythical/fantasy being characters (fairies, shapeshifters, etc). Also of note: does fall into the “character of color turns into an animal” trope; the one character I recall being described as black is a shapeshifter who turns into a dog, who has also suffered some of the most realistic-to-life adoption system trauma/abuse.

baearles's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Xenophobia

Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

kaimetcalfe's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Cursing

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

⁹

pastelkerstin's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful sad

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Violence and Death of parent

caitlinjadams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

What a lovely, lovely book about humanity. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail