Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Invisible Man by Malvina G. Vogel, H.G. Wells

9 reviews

sas_lk's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

It was just fine. Took me wayy too long to read even though it's less than 200 pages. I just didn't have as much fun with it as I was hoping to. Might also be the fact that I am still getting out of a reading slump...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Gun violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

obviousthings's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The main character just isn't very interesting aside from his invisibility. I understand why it's a classic, but I didn't enjoy reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, and Suicide

Minor: Body horror and Misogyny

kelisabeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Violence, Suicide, Racism, Physical abuse, and Murder

cdt96's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Drug use, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Racism, Child abuse, Confinement, Murder, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

I am glad I read this knowing it was published in serialized form. It reads like the 19th century book version of Jack Bauer's "24" - intro, climax, cliffhanger -  repeated over and over again with zero character development. Some reviewers have compared it to Jekyll & Hyde but I have not read that one. To me it gave Frankenstein vibes, except Griffin (THE invisible man) was both Dr. Frankenstein and "the monster." Unfortunately, the lack of character development meant that as a reader I had zero empathy for Griffin as "monster" because his motivations as scientist were never really explained. One thing I did enjoy in this book that Frankenstein did not have was the bits of humor.

We still had an interesting discussion at book club but everyone agreed that overall this book was just ok.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Classism, Racial slurs, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

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

3.25

Most of the characters in The Invisible Man is unlikeable, and I really enjoyed reading a book with that quality. From Mrs. Hall and her morbid curiosity about what's under Griffin's bandages when she thinks he's disfigured, to Griffin's descent from general asshole willing to rob a priest to villainous murderer, few of the characters in the novel have redeeming qualities. Reading a novel where the large majority of the cast of characters are inherently flawed was a different from what I normally read. Modern novels often try to appeal to the reader's empathy, but H G Wells actively wrote a main character that is easy to hate and who is the antagonist of everyone else's stories. The Invisible Man was a fun and easy read, and it's a good book to recommend to readers who are trying to get into the classics or older literature. It has some of the issues most older books have, along the lines of racism, antisemitism, sexism, etc., but not to the extent where it cannot be edited out. I switched back and forth between an old and new edition of the book, and the new one lacked a lot of the bigotry the original copy had.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, and Racism

michayla13's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Racial slurs, and Racism

tea_tamai's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Racial slurs

angel_kiiss's review against another edition

challenging fast-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? Yes

4.0

The book is fun and well done; it actually still stands as an interesting book despite being over 120 years old. But when reflecting, I found that the foreword (in the 21st century reprints) and afterword were more thought provoking than the actual book. 

I find it funny how the afterword poses The Invisible Man as a commentary on how power can currupt “good” people, when really the whole story is about how bad it would if already morally bad people were given absolute power and what kind of damage they could do with it. It’s the whole, “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” but I think that argument would stand better in a story where the person was morally “good” and then given the corrupting power of invisibility. 
The 2020 Invisible Man would actually be a better commentary on this if, for example, a sequel followed Elizabeth Moss’s character post coming into possession of the invisibility suit, and followed her as she either did “good” things or “bad” things with it. 

Absolute power has the chance to corrupt, but it only corrupts absolutely if the person were already corruptible to being with. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Body horror

Minor: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs