Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Es kann nur eine geben by Soman Chainani

14 reviews

_alyssar_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

kim_lommaert's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder, War, Kidnapping, Fatphobia, Bullying, and Violence

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

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

3.5

I picked this up because I enjoyed the film, although I didn't realise it was based on a children's book. It did contain some very undisguised dark themes though, so if it wasn't for the age of the characters, the writing style and some of the humour, I'd be tempted to call it YA.

It's a shame to see that children's stories still rely on fatphobia and making fun of "ugly" people for humour, and there was a lot of stereotyping of what "good" and "evil" people look like – although a lot of this is critiqued by the narrative, there were some blurred lines: for example, while we are shown that being mean to Dot about her fatness is bad, the author also mentions her size nearly every time she appears, and her size and appetite makes up most of her characterisation. Thankfully, there wasn't a hooked nose in sight, unlike in the film. 

While the plot dragged a bit in places, I really enjoyed the characters in this book and loved the portrayal of a character's descent into madness and the protagonists' respective identity crises. It was a really fun, if dark, read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Medical content, Body shaming, Bullying, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Mental illness

bookiesncookies's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Listen, if you had told me a year ago that my favorite series of the year, the ones I can't put down, the ones I binge through, are ones about small cursed children who have magic in them that they don't know about, that go to magical schools, ugh *chef's kiss.*

• All the Evergirls trying to plan their ballgowns ahead of time, plus contingency gowns
  
  
• Agatha accidentally eating a fairy upon arrival
  Tricking their reflections to pass the bridge
  The deep mystery of the reader mural, the proof of the balance of good/evil, the School Master's riddle, and so many other threads that start to be woven in book 2, and hopefully book 3
• Agatha reading more of her Good textbooks and falling in love with that world
  Locking Dot out of the coven
• Sophie trying to prettify her uniforms
  
  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

hayleythegoose's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Blood, Death, and Homophobia

saskiajva's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.25

This book started so strong and I really loved almost every single part of it. The plot is cute, creative, and unexpected.

One central theme of this book revolves around how your actions are what make you beautiful/ugly, and not vice versa, which I loved, but I felt like there could have been some improvement to how that theme was executed. Specifically once the characters started physically changing appearance in correlation to their actions, it almost had the exact opposite message

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Death, Murder, War, Body shaming, Child abuse, and Child death

ashleylowry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Bullying

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Kidnapping, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Fatphobia

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic friendship, and Body horror

Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Torture, and Slavery

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

1.5

I know a lot of the stereotypes presented in the book are based on tropes often seen in fairytales, but when you spend all 500 pages reenforcing them instead of showing how good and bad people can’t just be categorized into archetypes, it just becomes sexist, fatphobic, and a bunch of other problematic shit. I just don’t understand what exactly was the author’s goal – whether to dismantle or reaffirm fairytale tropes, because it comes off as reaffirming them.

The romance also doesn’t make sense. I know romances between princes and princesses are also part of fairytale tropes, but they were definitely trying to force something real between Agatha and Tedros, and there was just no chemistry at all. Like the only thing that drew him to Agatha during the tests was a “feeling”, and after realizing that she’s good and not a liar, he’s in love with her all of a sudden? Ok. The characters, as well as the story, were very two-dimensional and had no growth, and the ending felt rushed.

I also want to add on that Sophie and Agatha are supposed to be best friends but not only was Sophie a shit person, but she was also a shit friend. Readers are provided plenty of context on why Sophie is perfect for the School of Evil, but we don’t see any good memories between Sophie and Agatha that show why they’re friends with each other. Instead, you see Sophie barge her way to Agatha’s house regularly to build good credit, give her nasty cookies, and call her ugly.

The book felt long and tedious to get through because 1. we saw way too much of Sophie’s POV, especially for how insufferable and unselfaware she is. 2. Agatha just gets manipulated over and over and over again. ENOUGH.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexism, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Child death, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Violence, Murder, Slavery, War, and Torture

Minor: Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Racial slurs, and Stalking

hayleyvem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Gaslighting, Body shaming, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Violence, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Torture, Child death, and Confinement

Minor: Cannibalism, Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, Adult/minor relationship, and Lesbophobia