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mformato's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
The one thing this story did well was understanding the voice of a 13 year old boy as a protagonist, awfully annoying. All the characters in this book were cut and paste tropes. The antagonists weren't that compelling (not to mention the amount of times they hurt the dog) but neither were the protagonists of the story. The final act was full of such dues ex machina madness that made you roll your eyes. The fact that only one of the crew lost their lives (two if you consider the implications that one character was raped and thus lost her life in another way) was disappointing with the types of people the villains were. You had a friggin mobster and his goon taken down by a couple of meddling kids and the mysterious man of death die by the dog after he had been shot and whatever else happened to him in the final scene (I honestly just finished it and I don't remember what made him disappear for a short period of time before dramatically reappearing).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Blood, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Stalking, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Death, Child death, Car accident, Bullying, Body shaming, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
Minor: Rape
t_higgsreviews's review against another edition
No couldn't finish this as it was really offensive. I don't take offence often but this just overused the offensive things way past the point of keeping it historically accurate.
The story of this book (which was published in 2018) takes place in the 80s but it's being told to us by the main character who is now in the present rather than in the time period it took place in.
The main character used racist, fatphobic, sexist and ablest language so much in the first half of the book that it detracted from the story.
The main character (who was not disabled in any way) said he was "retarded" then later said he had Tourette's Syndrome and "backed" this up by swearing at more people to avoid leaving his dog outside a shop.
This completely unnecessary use of "spastic" was the start of the last straw for me
"As I struggled out of the sheets she continued to poke and prod at me, just for the hell of it, so that I got up in a funny spastic dance."
After that I read a little further but realised that I could no longer focus on the story.
The story of this book (which was published in 2018) takes place in the 80s but it's being told to us by the main character who is now in the present rather than in the time period it took place in.
The main character used racist, fatphobic, sexist and ablest language so much in the first half of the book that it detracted from the story.
This completely unnecessary use of "spastic" was the start of the last straw for me
After that I read a little further but realised that I could no longer focus on the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Cursing, Fatphobia, Ableism, Sexism, Racism, and Racial slurs
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