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geekmom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
Speaking of language…after struggling recently with Olivia Atwater’s delightful book ideas that were so let down by getting the “Regency” language badly wrong, I am so disappointed to find another writer who has clearly taken the time to carefully research the setting and time within which her novel is set but has not addressed the rather important problem of having her characters talk like people from that place and time. So in this book I’m reading about English people (mainly Londoners) in the 19th century— they should not be speaking a weird mixture of modern American English and of the way Americans might imagine English people spoke in the past. I tried hard to get past this issue but, seriously, as just one example— in London in the late 1800s the word “pants” did not mean what it means to a 21st century American reader. And we have plenty of written sources to tell us how Sherlock Holmes spoke - I’m not able to check right now but I’m going to hazard a guess that he rarely if ever used the word “gotten”… How hard would it have been to ask someone familiar with English dialects and the particular way English would have been spoken by people from various social classes at that time to review the manuscript and help fix this? This book would have been great if Goss and her editors could have made the language work; instead I was constantly being jolted out of the world of the book by misplaced and misused words, and I had to work to finish it. I wonder what the editors and publishers were thinking. I’m forced to conclude that they don’t expect their readers to be familiar enough with the source material and setting that inspired this novel to notice or care about this issue, which is a really depressing conclusion given that one would hope this book would motivate readers to go out and read Holmes and the wonderful early speculative fiction that inspired Goss to write this book.
Graphic: Murder, Torture, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Slavery and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
gabi_tron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Violence
thepastelnerd's review against another edition
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content
froyobaggns's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Stalking, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Death, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal cruelty
anni_swanilda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Murder
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Confinement
Minor: Medical content, Animal cruelty, and Forced institutionalization
ijustreallyliketrees's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Death
Moderate: Violence, Gore, and Animal death
Minor: Suicide and Mental illness
clarabooksit's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.5
Moderate: Murder, Violence, Death, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Confinement, and Child abuse
Minor: Infertility
madscientistcat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent and Murder
elizalavenza's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Body horror, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Gore
Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
beca_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of parent, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, and Violence