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carterimln's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Self harm, Blood, Abortion, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Child death, Racism, Slavery, Excrement, and Car accident
maryellen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abortion
ktjernzt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
oro91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Blood
juliaraimondi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abortion and Fire/Fire injury
kelseygrachek's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
Minor: Cannibalism and Abortion
thehungrylittlebookworm'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Addiction and Body horror
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail
dustghosts's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
+ great narration from the audiobook reader
+ a fantastic writing style that meanders through the slow moments well, evocative and high-tension at more horrific/scary scenes, overall I would read more from this author
+ some truly scary visuals / moments that felt almost made for the screen
+ at least nearer the beginning, a really well-balanced homage to a place with a complicated history, past and present
+ excellent depiction of a toxic, all-consuming relationship, and a complicated and nuanced depiction of what grief for that might look like
o not a particularly likeable cast, and the other three characters in the friend group were more vividly and interestingly depicted than our narrator, Erin. a few characters call her “empty,” though, and I think this blankness might have been purposeful
- this book is trying to handle a lot of difficult topics (grief, history and how to reckon with it, toxic relationships and friendships, addiction, the creation of “ghost stories,” and some more minor ones). sometimes it does this really well, but more often feels muddled and the pace suffers for it. not that a book can’t focus on multiple themes, but I think that leaning stronger into one or two could have helped the book to feel more focused and purposeful. (For example: we spend a lot of time talking about facing history and giving it its due, but that seems to fall by the wayside the further we get into the book, and feels unsatisfying to be reminded of again at the end when we haven’t looked dead on at any of it in some time.)
- I’m not sure whether this is a helpful or harmful depiction of addiction, and I don’t really have the tools to analyze that— will have to learn and listen more to do so properly. lots of reviewers say this does a good job of portraying the “horrors of addiction,” the destructive patterns and loss of self that can come with. to me, on a surface level, this feels often very sensationalized and demonizing of drug users— not unlike those books we would have been obsessed with in middle school. having the narrator be an addict herself, and the natural marriage of genre to subject, helps some, but I have a major issue reconciling the moralizing of the epilogue with
- as a sucker for repetition, I still felt that this book leaned a bit too heavily on it at times, and it just felt like when you start nodding along to someone as they’re speaking to you just to see them through
anyway. it was an interesting and mostly-enjoyable read, but felt like it went off the rails at some point and I’m not sure that it ever made it all the way back on
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child death, Gore, Blood, Abortion, and Injury/Injury detail