Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Starter Villain

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Starter Villain by John Scalzi

22 reviews

trips's review

emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

3.0

So first off, I want it to be known that my 3 star rating is definitely a me thing.

I found this book to be fun fish-out-of-water, light hearted tale, much like KPS! It was easy to read; the prose is fun and the dialogue is witty. I loved all the pokes at how our world is currently run, and I especially loved the cats, Hera and Persephone.

I didn't expect a light discussion on the treatment of workers in our modern world to really come up, but I guess when Charlie is dealing with all these multi-millionaires and their complete lack of care for the general population, it was only natural!

My real reason for it being 3 stars: Charlie's situation at the beginning was way too relatable and at first I was like "huh, ok!" but then the details got too similar and it became kind of like, "huh, my life really is like a story, isn't it?" and it was a weird thing to come to terms with.

Charlie and I's horrific life events are luckily not very common, so I think most people will have a fun time with this book! A part of me is apologetic towards writing this at all but honestly, I really needed to get it off my chest for myself. Thank you for your understanding to whoever is

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

The most loveable characters are easily the cats and dolphins, both of which are way more fleshed out than one might expect. This is also a pretty realistic idea of a regular schmegular character being thrown into the world of cartoon villainy. The plot can be hard to follow in a very saturday-evening cartoon special kind of way. If you suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow the experience is fine.
I have some feelings on every non-white character being nepo-babies and generally morally corrupt bad dudes. They are supposed to be characters with more money than brains,

except the money isn't real and they definitely do not have it

. This was my first Scalzi so maybe there isn't a theme and the diversity of the villains was to really point out their gender bias or something?

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mandareads222's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious 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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rwsmith's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

this was such a fun read. i loved the pace and length of this book. its very quippy, but not so much that it gets old or annoying. its predictable enough to be satisfying, but not enough to be boring. i haven't read any other works by john scalzi, but this was so fun i might put some of his other work on my tbr.

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