Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

14 reviews

queersubtext's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Death of parent, Violence, Vomit, Confinement, Suicide attempt, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, and Pregnancy

megj23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Kidnapping and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abandonment and Murder

cassandrareadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

My words could never describe the enchanting narrative that Victor LaValle has created with The Changeling. 

This story is so many things: the lengths a mother and father would go to protect their child, the secrets we keep to protect the ones we love (and ourselves), generational curses/trauma, and a critique of internet social norms/voyeurism. 

LaValle weaves Norse mythology into modern day NYC. So much so, that I’d like to drive up to Forest Hills to see what the trees are hiding. I’d like to take a boat out to the ocean just to see if I can stand where Apollo stood. 

There is a nod to Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in The Castle,” so small that you might not even catch it. 

I’m looking forward to watching the TV show and to reading more books written by LaValle.

P.S. This is my favorite book now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Gaslighting, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment and Fire/Fire injury

jialianyang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

A beautiful tale that quickly snowballs into a haunting, mysterious, sad, and horrifying thriller. Survivors birthing and parenting survivors, a book man seeks vengeance, a mother fights to find her real child, all of these are just snapshots of the twists and turn in this gripping book. It's won many awards for good reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Gore, Blood, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death, Grief, Gaslighting, Murder, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Body horror

Minor: Police brutality

jsteighn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Murder, Grief, Violence, Mental illness, and Stalking

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Blood

tey_lynn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

kathygotpugs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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: Mental illness, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

sarah984's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

I really liked this book. The writing is really charming (which feels weird to say with this type of content) and the fairy tale atmosphere worked really well for the most part. New York and its history were well utilized. There is one plot point in the middle of the book that I thought was kind of silly

(the part at Rikers - considering later discussions that was all absurdly easy and felt kind of pointless)

but overall fantastic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Child death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Stalking, Abandonment, Death, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm, Alcohol, Confinement, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Police brutality

flyintothestorm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It was weird, but the right kind of weird. I didn't know nor expect anything when I started reading and that may have been the best thing for me. That being said, it's really dark, look out for the content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Racism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Medical content

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

Okay, wtf did I just read?!
At first, the story was so nice and funny and light-hearted for the most part. Then it got more intense and weird. And around the 50% mark it got totally off the rails... and that was just the beginning.

Although I liked the characters, they did some questionable things throughout the book. I loved the dark fairy tale like atmosphere and the writing style. Especially the humour in the first half of the book, which did disappear for the majority of the second half due to how dark and intense the plot got. Btw, I did not like the name of the bad guy because.. why? Couldn't take him seriously tbh, and it took out all the tension every time it was mentioned. 

I liked how unpredictable the plot was and all the different parts of it. I just think the book was too long. At least it felt like it was dragging sometimes despite all the action and mystery elements. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Mental illness, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical content, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, and Pregnancy