Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

6 reviews

nerodyne's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

It's hard to put into words how I feel about Mongrels. It definitely provided a take on werewolves that I haven't really ever seen before, and I think that had I read this book as a kid it would have changed something in me. The moving all the time, living paycheck to paycheck, living in shitty run down trailers and feeling like family is all you got, while worrying you aren't really the same as your family. It's definitely something I experienced in my youth, short of actually being a werewolf myself. When it comes to execution though, I struggled to fully connect with the writing style and while I usually love perspective changes and non linear stories, the ones in this felt a bit clunky and took some time to get used to. Not to mention, the story honestly got pretty nasty at times. It never felt unnecessarily obscene, it was clearly a matter of putting an animalistic lens on people, but I can't deny there were a few times I had to put down the book for a few minutes,

especially regarding the time that Libby fucked a dog and that family of werewolves broke into a Jewish cemetery to eat a recently deceased woman

. All in all, I'd probably recommend the book so long as you're someone who already likes supernatural horror to begin with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Excrement, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, and Physical abuse

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Antisemitism, Bullying, Medical content, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Police brutality, Sexual content, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Pedophilia, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Drug abuse

Contains discussion of bestiality - as well as a scene where a werewolf in shift is mounted by a dog, albeit evidently against her will.
Antisemitism warning is just in case, for a chapter that involves a Jewish cemetery.

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, Racism, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Pregnancy, Car accident, Excrement, and Domestic abuse

nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcoholism

corar's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

Mongrels is a coming of age story about a boy who lives with his aunt and uncle on the fringes of society. They are outcasts that are barely getting by and constantly on the move. The chapters of the book are vignettes of his life that are not always told in order. There will be a chapter when he is eleven and the next will be when he is fifteen and the next will go back to when he is nine. They also switch from first person to third person between chapters. Despite the confusion this could cause, it worked. All of the chapters and the stories they told fit together and the order makes sense for the story. While this is a story about werewolves, it is much more than that. It is a coming of age story about a boy trying to figure out his place in the world. It has a much more literary feel than other werewolf books I have read. I think that anyone that likes werewolf stories should include this in their reading plans, but that those that like more realism in their books may enjoy it too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cannibalism, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

sofipitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I adored this book. I'm a slut for monsters as a metaphor for being an outsider, and this book delivered! I really hope this author does a vampire book, I just know it would be great.

I put complicated for diversity bc the character's race is never mentioned (there's an explanation for that at the end and well as why the main character character doesn't share his name) but I pictured the characters as Native American, since I knew that's the author's identity. There's also a part in the book where a child asks the MC if he's Mexican, which is common for Native Americans. But it's not 100% the characters are BIPOC 🤷‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Excrement, Cannibalism, Animal death, and Kidnapping