Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook by Christina Henry

74 reviews

sarahbiegelsen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Confinement, Death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Gore and Kidnapping

madamegeneva's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Holy crap. The last 50 or so pages were so fast paced - my heart was racing. And the ending? What a gut punch. I don’t normally read fiction but this kept me, pardon the pun, hooked. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood and Violence

rosenau's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abandonment, Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, Toxic relationship, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

the things i would do and give to be able to experience this book again for the first time...

i first read lost boy around 2 years ago, give or take a few months. and i was in love. baffled. shocked. totally immersed and utterly impressed by all of henry's brutal, brilliant and exciting ideas.
[this was the book that sparked my passion for re-tellings (of peter pan and others)!]
jamie and peter's relationship is so frighteningly interesting and nuanced; the manipulation, the jealousy, the betrayal, the absolute madness - i loved it all.

the book is very character-driven, and with that i mean most of the book is the characters getting slaughtered or slaughtering each other. the plot beyond that was scarce, but that's okay because the pages were filled with other things, namely clever ideas, fantastic revelations and intrigues (but sometimes, sadly, also kinda lengthy scenes).

there's only one thing i didn't like, neither back then nor now, and it's the whole thing surrounding sal.

i didn't hate her character in and of itself (i guess she was even meant to debunk certain female stereotypes), but i hated the effect she had on all the others and the story.
i hated how the revelation that she's a girl seemed to change everything, from the boys' thinking to their language to even the narration (suddenly noting her physique and random blushing and so forth). and i hated how jamie came to the very quick realisation that he loved her right there on the battle ground. it was strange.
her whole arc didn't fit into the story and she brought a certain aspect to the book that i didn't enjoy. perhaps it was the romance that was obviously inevitable (because she's the only girl and jamie the main boy, which is just so stupid). perhaps it was the possibility of a happy ending. i don't know. the book seemed to lose its tone and charm as soon as jamie fell for her and even became a little unenjoyable from this revelation on until her inconsequential death. it got better after that, though.

but the ending was great. like really. it was impactful and so so SO thrilling.
still one of my favorite christina henry books, even after nearly 2 years.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Minor: Vomit and Gun violence

cozywithraven's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love this book. I've read it twice now, and it has a really wonderful way of pulling you in. It leans into what we already know and accept as canon and finds the threads that pull the narrative into a dark twist without completely re-writing the characters and making it into something unrecognizable. I wish some parts were more fleshed out, the fairies and pirates especially. The book goes a great job of showing the island itself, Peter and Jamie's relationship, and Jamie as he grows. But I feel like some of the magic is lost,

the mermaids aren't really described and only appear once, the pirates are only interacted with once. The Many Eyes are a cool touch and I like how they're described. And the ending doesn't tie together the crocodile eating Hook's hand, or Hook becoming captain or even just arriving at the pirate camp.

the ending just felt really stunted compared to the test of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Bullying, Physical abuse, Stalking, Torture, Child abuse, and Murder

Minor: Vomit and Kidnapping

Narcissism

definitelynotnina's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It was not at all what I expected when I picked this up, but it's a wonderfully twisted version of the story. Not for the faint of heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Body horror

Moderate: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Child abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual violence and Outing

lace_and_roses's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Emotional abuse

iamlexy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Vomit

impalalibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I thought I guessed the plot of this book before I started reading this, then I thought I was wrong and it would end different. I was right. It was exactly what I thought the plot would be.

It was darker and gorier than I thought it would, there’s a lot more blood and a lot more death than I thought, but it only makes sense and it makes the overal story so good! 

I’m glad the boys who survived got to stay together, but they will always have a missing spot in their hearts, and so will I.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

ksuazo94's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Murder, Child death, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Confinement, Grief, Animal death, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Violence, Medical content, and Blood