Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

9 reviews

outerscout's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

found this veeery slow and hard to get into to the point where i kept putting it down for other books over 2 months, but then the ending made me cry a ton. writing is a bit difficult to visualize sometimes, something i noticed continues into the only good indians but found much improved by my heart is a chainsaw. wish there was more build-up to the main twist (?) re:

the externimation company's werewolf piss slavery

but the last part of the book was much more engaging, and love a good framing device reveal. i feel like i'd enjoy it more on a reread

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Alcohol, Cannibalism, and Torture

avareadsoccasionally's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

I liked it a lot! I thought the concept was fun and I liked how it wasn’t exactly an everyday-werewolf book but it did still lean on some of those old werewolf stories. I thought the pacing of it was nice and I liked how it went back and forth in time as it went through the story. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this horror, though there was gore (which both are fine with me). Overall, a fun book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism

eevee314's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

SGJ is just next level. I wasnt even in the mood for this type of book currently but it was so compelling I just couldn't stop till I was done. The way he writes is both simple and wildly evocative. Hes excellent at capturing a feeling or action perfectly in as few words as possible. 
A really new take on werewolves. 
I wouldn't say it's scary like a horror movie but it's visceral and raw with horror elements.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Child death and Rape

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

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

It's just so slow for me and not interesting enough. I don't want to keep trying to make myself read something I'm not even remotely enjoying at this point. I think if I had the audio it would've helped, but my library doesn't have it. The concept is cool, love werewolves, and liked the beginning a little bit, but everything about this book isn't doing it for me. 
Sucks because I loved My Heart is a Chainsaw. I'll try another book by this author and hopefully it isn't like Mongrels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Medical content

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.

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

pogue's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Terminal illness