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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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:
Complicated
Really a crazy book. It's a great update to the Lovecraftian vibe, adding diversity in place of the bigotry. The language and characters are the main stars, with the plot itself being a bit sidelined and even convoluted. It's really worth the read.
challenging
dark
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was very interesting. The timelines are very complicated and convoluted but I enjoyed it for it’s disjointed storytelling.
Don't get me wrong, the three stars are not because this book is bad. On the contrary, this is a good book. A clever one, and one that is not afraid to do something interesting with its story-telling. The fact that the whole thing is recounted by a character - an actual character, one that is always observing and reporting - is brilliant. It's such an original way to tell a story and it explains while we don't really follow one particular character but many of them, and we observe them in different moments in time as they try to adapt to the world changing around them.
The cast is diverse, with each of the characters having a unique voice and a compelling backstory and I enjoyed seeing how their paths met toward the end. I liked them and liked how everyone gave a different perspective on the situation.
The monsters too are terribly fascinating. There are so many different types and it feels like there is still an entire world to explore!
Thus said, I struggled to get invested in the story. It might be the fact that the narration was so fractured, that we didn't spend much time with each character, that I found some storylines more interesting than others; I just didn't enjoy reading this book as much as I would have liked. Often I was left confused, and the book didn't answer many of my questions. This is fine, considering that this is only the first book of a saga, but made the entire experience a bit less enjoyable for me.
All things considered, this is a book I would recommend. The story is good and fresh and told in such an interesting way. As for me, I think I'll wait a little bit before picking up the sequel. I need to let this sit for a while.
I just hope someone is going to give poor Dragon some cookies. That boy deserves the world.
The cast is diverse, with each of the characters having a unique voice and a compelling backstory and I enjoyed seeing how their paths met toward the end. I liked them and liked how everyone gave a different perspective on the situation.
The monsters too are terribly fascinating. There are so many different types and it feels like there is still an entire world to explore!
Thus said, I struggled to get invested in the story. It might be the fact that the narration was so fractured, that we didn't spend much time with each character, that I found some storylines more interesting than others; I just didn't enjoy reading this book as much as I would have liked. Often I was left confused, and the book didn't answer many of my questions. This is fine, considering that this is only the first book of a saga, but made the entire experience a bit less enjoyable for me.
All things considered, this is a book I would recommend. The story is good and fresh and told in such an interesting way. As for me, I think I'll wait a little bit before picking up the sequel. I need to let this sit for a while.
I just hope someone is going to give poor Dragon some cookies. That boy deserves the world.
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
started this was a lot of enthusiasm for the concept and, I'm sad to say, ended it over a week and several internal conversations about whether to DNF it or not later.
The prose is great, but it seems to me like Turnbull couldn't decide whether he wanted to write a collection of short stories or a novel, ultimately falling somewhere in the middle with a bloated collection of short stories held together by a plot that ended up feeling paper thin - even more so for the last minute attempt at fleshing it out with some hints at a larger, overarching plot, presumably dangled in front of readers as an enticement to read the sequel. Which I will, with a lot less enthusiasm, but only because I already bought it before reading this book.
I wish I'd been given more of an opportunity to become attached to the characters; or that this world where monsters had been revealed to exist had been fleshed out more, rather than being spread over the basic framework of a civil rights struggle. Anything to really draw me into the world of this story in its own right, rather than being left with the feeling that I got to experience the result of a clearly adept author enthusiastically trying out something new.
Rating this one was hard. I can't say it's badly written, and a lot of the things I don't like about it are clearly intentional choices rather than failures on the author's part. But, would I ever recommend to someone that they read this? No. Not unless I was trying to punish them for some reason.
TWs: sexual abuse, domestic abuse, drug use, violence, police brutality
The prose is great, but it seems to me like Turnbull couldn't decide whether he wanted to write a collection of short stories or a novel, ultimately falling somewhere in the middle with a bloated collection of short stories held together by a plot that ended up feeling paper thin - even more so for the last minute attempt at fleshing it out with some hints at a larger, overarching plot, presumably dangled in front of readers as an enticement to read the sequel. Which I will, with a lot less enthusiasm, but only because I already bought it before reading this book.
I wish I'd been given more of an opportunity to become attached to the characters; or that this world where monsters had been revealed to exist had been fleshed out more, rather than being spread over the basic framework of a civil rights struggle. Anything to really draw me into the world of this story in its own right, rather than being left with the feeling that I got to experience the result of a clearly adept author enthusiastically trying out something new.
Rating this one was hard. I can't say it's badly written, and a lot of the things I don't like about it are clearly intentional choices rather than failures on the author's part. But, would I ever recommend to someone that they read this? No. Not unless I was trying to punish them for some reason.
TWs: sexual abuse, domestic abuse, drug use, violence, police brutality
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The writing style is very detached which made it tough to connect with the characters, and there were so many characters and timelines introduced that it was hard to keep track of everything and everyone, especially because it wasn’t immediately apparent why these people were important.
The writing was beautiful but not super engaging for me personally. I was so hyped to read this book and was a bit let down. Great representation though.
The writing was beautiful but not super engaging for me personally. I was so hyped to read this book and was a bit let down. Great representation though.
at NO point in this book did I understand anything at all. I even don't know if it's supposed to make sense. can confusion be the plot of a book? did I just fully miss the message for 300+ consecutive pages?
seriously questioning my literacy skills, but I actually had a good time. don't read the first half while you're eating. good luck.
seriously questioning my literacy skills, but I actually had a good time. don't read the first half while you're eating. good luck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The release of a police shooting video reveals the existence of the supernatural to the world, and the world's reaction is complex. This is an urban fantasy that makes a credible attempt at having a very realistic tone and has a lot to say about intersectionality and allyship, using monsters as an allegory alongside real world marginalized people. Really looking forward to the second book.
Okay, soooooo I really like the concept of this and I think it did some pretty cool stuff towards the end, BUT... I did not enjoy the first 90%, or whatever, of the book. It felt like there where too many people, things were too random and vague and I wasn't getting as much of the monster parts as I was thinking I would.
There was some nice commentary but it was lost in the monotony of the everyday moments that we were experiencing with characters that I just did not connect with. Now I don't think the book did anything wrong per-se, I know this would be interesting for some people, but it wasn't for me and if I wasn't trying to finish the book so I could provide feedback over on netgalley.. well.. I would have DNF'd this book pretty early on.
I will admit that the ending was interesting but it just wasn't worth the rest of the book. I assume that we were supposed to be building connections with the characters while it laid the foundation so that we would be emotionally impacted by all the stuff that happened in the later half of the book but I just didn't care about anyone. I guess I wanted more from the book, and I'm assuming the writing or whatever just isn't for me. Which is a bummer. Really like the idea wish I liked the book..
There was some nice commentary but it was lost in the monotony of the everyday moments that we were experiencing with characters that I just did not connect with. Now I don't think the book did anything wrong per-se, I know this would be interesting for some people, but it wasn't for me and if I wasn't trying to finish the book so I could provide feedback over on netgalley.. well.. I would have DNF'd this book pretty early on.
I will admit that the ending was interesting but it just wasn't worth the rest of the book. I assume that we were supposed to be building connections with the characters while it laid the foundation so that we would be emotionally impacted by all the stuff that happened in the later half of the book but I just didn't care about anyone. I guess I wanted more from the book, and I'm assuming the writing or whatever just isn't for me. Which is a bummer. Really like the idea wish I liked the book..