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brinnavirginia's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Gore, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Blood, Torture, Chronic illness, Animal death, Child death, Sexual violence, Murder, Violence, and Death
Minor: Drug use
chasingpages1's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Body horror, Grief, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Chronic illness, Confinement, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Cursing, Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Torture
smuds2's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The pacing is quite good - I think it pauses where it needs to pause and speeds where it needs to speed. I think I would have liked it to sit a bit more with Joseph - it felt like his chapter was stuck mostly with narrative and rapid character development to a climax.
There were some unnecessary sexual explicit scenes for my taste (I'm not quite sure the fact that they were sexually explicit added anything valuable to the importance of the scenes). I also think that at times, the first three chapters lapsed into kind of a generic voice.
I think that, thematically, this is a great work of weird-fiction? Magical realism? depicting the grieving process. Lucia, not really understanding monstrilio, but begrudgingly living with it (I'm thinking especially post attack). Lena just being supportive to both her friend(s) and the manifestation of their grief. Magos arc of basically saying "I can fix it", while it 'dragged' on her life (although, not for the worse - I'm thinking of her turning down the Valencia gig to stay with family could easily be interpreted as a reprioritization directly as a result of the strengthened bonds formed during grief).
I don't think Josephs arc is nearly as clean - and maybe that's the point?
And I'm not quite sure how to square away uncle luke in this setting - is he the enabler? Is that good? The safe place to act your worse during grief?
I also think that a major shortcoming of the book was not sitting with lucia's death and then just kind of ignoring jackie. is that because they were not supportive? And as a result faded out of their life? I feel like there could have been thematic commentary for how to grief for a "normal" death.
Graphic: Sexual violence, Animal death, Drug abuse, Body horror, Cannibalism, Deadnaming, Drug use, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Medical content, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, and Torture