Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

6 reviews

flaminggecko's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective tense medium-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Body shaming, Classism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, and Animal death

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Child abuse, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Cursing, and Abandonment

Minor: Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Drug use, Murder, Stalking, and Grief

emilywemily6's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book was so fun- is cozy horror a thing? The main character was hilarious and relatable, and I found myself laughing out loud a lot. There were definitely creepy elements, and I really didn’t know where the story was going, though in retrospective it was a well-thought-out storyline. I enjoyed the cast of characters and their depth. I wish that there was more horror, especially for the first 3/4 of the book, but there were horror elements throughout, I just hoped for more. I think more horror earlier in the book would have helped the pacing a little bit. This is a great intro to horror, though I could see that some people may still be really spooked by it. I listened on audio and loved the narrator *except* for their Phil voice. Overall, this made me excited to read other stuff by the author!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcohol, Racism, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Drug use, Cannibalism, Medical content, Grief, and Sexual content

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I liked the creepy and mysterious beginning more than the action packed end. The narrator is very funny and relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Animal death, Racism, Bullying, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, Body horror, and Medical content

Minor: Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Classism, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Murder, and Racial slurs

skeuomorphism's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

love the humor! plot's a little slow on the build-up but trust that it's worth the read. and the suspense.....entomologist's kiss....i cannot express the sheer joy that i felt as a insect lover reading about sam's thoughts on bugs
+ the hardcover edition of this book is so pretty??????? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Blood, Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Animal death and Racism

tigger89's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Anything by T. Kingfisher is an auto-request for me, at this point. I love that woman's imagination. A creepy southern gothic, while less fantastic than her previous stories I'd read, is still right up my alley. And I loved the narrator! She was a joy to ride around with, whether she was snarking about the wifi or nerding out about bugs. As someone who's around the same age as Sam, I could relate heavily to her anxieties regarding her aging mother. The finale was also incredible, keeping tension high from the moment Sam stepped back into the house until the matter was resolved.

Unfortunately, overall I didn't like this book as much as Kingfisher's other two. Perhaps it was the genre shift, the addition of teased romantic tension between our intrepid protagonist and the sexy gardener, or the fact that a large part of the story's build-up could have been skipped if the protagonist and her mother had just had That Conversation at any point before the story was two-thirds of the way over. But that doesn't mean it's bad! The bar was just set very high, is all.

Now, the most important question: do the vultures and/or ladybugs die?

There is a committee of vultures, one named and many unnamed. All survive to the end of the story. There are also many, many ladybugs. Unfortunately, some of the ladybugs get squashed in the course of the story, but the majority of them survive.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Racism, Animal death, Child death, and Dementia

Anyone with a fear of bugs should be aware there's multiple scenes involving swarms of ladybugs crawling around and on the point of view character.