Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - A Cosmology of Monsters

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

18 reviews

trailmixraisins's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

3.5

What if monsters were not just our imagination but living alongside us, watching us? A creepy story of Lovecraftian horror that follows a family for three generations.

The sexual turn it took about three-quarters of the way in was kind of gross and off-putting. I would've enjoyed it much more without that aspect.

The world-building was a little weak, but it was mostly cohesive throughout.

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redus_reuse_recycle's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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elna17a9a's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

Noah's whole family history is speckled with literal monsters, but he doesn't know it until he meets, befriends, and eventually

falls in love with one.

Interesting and engaging but that's it.

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malloryfitz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

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

3.0

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rupesaltai's review against another edition

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dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

**Content warning: grooming**

I really wanted to like A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill. Parts of it I really did like, and the overall story is engaging and keeps you hooked until the very end. However, I felt that there are so many topics this book aimed to cover (family trauma, emotional neglect, the looming presence of the unknown, some aspects of horror, teen drama, even some aspects of erotica), that the main focus of the story got muddled along the way.

To me it felt like a wave of very deeply moving sections intermingled within a binge-worthy low energy Netflix teen show. Definitely worth a look but not what I had expected it to be. I also kept changing my expectations along the way because the intensity and depth of the story kept oscillating so much for my own personal taste. The ending, which was the most engaging part of it all, felt too short and rushed, and I'm left with the feeling that the whole book and its narrative could have been so much more.

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it by any means. It's an enjoyable book. But that's pretty much it. There isn't much horror to it (although the author has mentioned how he drew a lot of inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft, which is mostly apparent in the naming of the book sections), and its darkness was often subdued and not really brought forward to its full capacity in my own personal view. I still enjoyed reading it and never once felt that it got boring or slow.

However, I should add that the story involves the grooming of a young boy, and this disturbing aspect is never really confronted (it's mentioned once by an accessory character who is promptly discarded), but rather is turned into a love story. This left me feeling icky from the very moment it starts around halfway in the book, and it never really went away.

All in all, a good read that could have been a lot more.

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wcsheffer's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The start of this book was such a win for me and unfortunately it took a turn in a very different direction that I enjoyed much less. The Publisher's Weekly review sums up my thoughts quite well!

I found the author was way too focused on describing boring and quite creepy sex scenes than developing an interesting plot.

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janinaloveletters's review against another edition

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keen's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

For the Hamill's first novel, this was great. I read this book without fully reading the summary, so that was a big ride to go through. I had no idea where things would go. Throughout the book I felt tense, literally shaken, happy, and like I was going to cry. I enjoyed the smooth transitions from section to section, chapter to chapter, and year to year. Eunice is also a character I related to so much it made finishing the book painful at times. I'm not happy with how some characters ended up, but I'm fine with it. It's a book that feels very realistic with how not everything can be wrapped up in a neat and tidy bow, which makes me more sad than disappointed.

Usually I don't reread books, but I can see myself rereading/skimming through to see what I missed.

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