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dubious_little_creature's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gore
animarret2boog's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Minor: Homophobia, Addiction, and Sexual content
lobstersbooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gore, Murder, and Body horror
2busyreading's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Homophobia, Animal death, and Infidelity
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Drug use
biobeetle's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Body horror, Violence, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Blood and Murder
Minor: Sexual content
sspaghettiboness's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book is undeniable pure poetry. The word choice and sentence structure gave me flashbacks to reading Fight Club for the first time, in awe of his sentence structure. The hard stops, the drop dead gorgeous sentences that come out of nowhere. You could flip this book open to any page and find a sentence to highlight. Not to come across as arrogant, but this writing style overall reminded me a lot of what I do in my own work, so it deeply resonated with me. The shifts in viewpoints was very dark and satisfying, I liked those chapters the most.
The gore and horror was well executed (this from an avid extreme horror reader). Sometimes “creature feature” authors spend too much time trying to convey how the being looks that it’s appearance becomes confusing and loses its impact. Sort of like when an author over describes the clothing their MC is wearing.
Mid-tier - some people are going to love the coming of age, figuring out your sexuality, and internalised homophobia of it all. Some people aren’t. I was indifferent to it, even though it really is the defining plot. I am the kind of person who reads for the style, structure, word choice, devices, and dialogue. Obviously, a weak plot or one riddled with holes is something I’ll pick up on; the same can be said about a very strong and unique plot presenting a story or viewpoint I’ve never experienced before. So he gets all the points for style, but not many for substance.
But I have to give this book 3.5 stars because the opening narrative was not strong. Dries comes out hot with that first chapter, but what follows is incredibly dull. Maybe he was trying to pull the rug out from under the reader? But the pacing and build wouldn’t be indicative of that. Some of the character building made sense, some of it was just filler and did not reflect or connect to who each character is revealed to be. There’s a specific scene in the beginning with the protagonist, his sister, and his best friend that could’ve had so much more to offer the novella if he just changed one thing.
Slight issue - I caught 3 grammatical errors in the book that shouldn’t have slipped anyone by.
I don’t mind reimaginings, but I’m actually shocked they didn’t mention it on the back cover. I wish I’d known before going into reading, it would not have stopped me, but it annoyed me to discover on my own.
Overall, the prose is the strongest feature of this book. The narrative itself left more to be desired and would’ve been more interest with some reworking or speeding it up. I will certainly be reading more of his work.
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Animal death, and Blood
Moderate: Bullying and Animal death
Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual content
ngorki's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Bullying
canopicfemme's review
3.5
Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Child death
seawarrior's review
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, and Homophobia
sylvestra's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Homophobia, and Infidelity
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Alcoholism, Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts