Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

2 reviews

shoham's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

1.25

I liked all of it, it was wonderful! And then... The ending came to ruin it all. I listened to it on audiobook and I was fucking devastated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Sexism, Police brutality, Murder, Pedophilia, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Body shaming, Misogyny, Animal death, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Death, Drug use, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Alcohol, and Mental illness

and this is clearly a very weird book, so beware of that

livlostinstereo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

After reading the Owens' Family books from Alice Hoffman (which I highly recommend!), I was recommended to read The Museum of Extraordinary Things over all of her other books. When I saw that my library had it, I just couldn't resist.
What a fantastic book. I struggled to put it down. Once again, Alice Hoffman delivers a masterclass on writing characters that feel so vividly real. Coralie and Eddie are wonderfully well-rounded characters.
The ONLY reason this isn't a 5 from me is because the ending felt slightly rushed. That's not to say it wasn't good - it just felt a bit rushed in comparison to the pace of the rest of the book.
But nothing will stop me from rereading this with the same love I have reread The Rules of Magic with time and time again.
The historical fiction of this story is truly immersive and just makes you want to read and learn more about the various events referenced.
If you read anything this winter, please let it be this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical content, Physical abuse, Rape, and Self harm

Moderate: Torture, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Grief