Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

103 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

WHAT MOVES THE DEAD is a retelling of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", which I waited to read until after I'd finished the retelling. This was a good decision, leaving me room to enjoy what the novella actually does rather than waiting for the scant events from the original story to play out. The cast of characters is larger and significantly more developed than in the original, which is good. The particular fungal incursion is resolved, but as this gets a sequel I doubt the problem was handled once and for all, merely suppressed in this particular instance. 

Things I love, in no particular order: the way pronouns and gender are used; the appearance of a relative of Beatrix Potter, who was a children's writer/illustrator because of sexism precluding her from illustrating botanical texts; the way the discovery of the cause is approached; how creepy the hares are.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Gore, and Death

Moderate: War, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Medical content, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Gun violence, and Suicide

adragoninspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Medical trauma, Animal death, and Body horror

Minor: Suicide

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Death, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Murder, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

mothmania's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Grief, Medical content, and Gore

orasmis's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Murder, and War

Moderate: Suicide and Animal death

Minor: Alcohol and Mental illness

aparker89's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Terminal illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Moderate: War, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Dementia, Self harm, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, and Animal cruelty

hedsek's review

adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

I really wanted to like this but I couldn't with the writing style. Why is the main character so annoyingly aware of the (modern) reader? It feels very anachronistic and kind of took me out of the book a few times. I also really did not enjoy the snarky dialogue and all the random stereotyping about different nationalities, which is like 1/3 of the dialogue. There's also a few times where it is super clear what we're supposed to figure out as the reader but the author still pretends it's mysterious only to drop it at the end of a chapter like it's some huge plottwist, especially

the thing with Madeline walking like the hare

. I'll be reading the original story as well, the book did get me curious. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, and Medical content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Alcoholism, Confinement, Sexism, Cursing, Misogyny, Suicide, and War

natspat98's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Gore and Suicide

skranz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Terminal illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Alcohol

livetgjennomb_ker's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This made me have a visceral reaction while I was reading in public. I love it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

Moderate: Alcohol and Body horror