Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Children of Paradise

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

33 reviews

discocaptain's review

dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

GOD. WHAT A PICTURE. im saying this about a book but its so concerned with film and theatres that i think its apt. horrible, gross and yet so affecting and charming. its giving hollywood new wave. and each chapter title provides you with a free to watch list so get on it watch the red shoes (1948), the last picture show (1971), return to oz (1985) and all the rest. it'll make for an incredible re-read if youre not already as obsessed with film as i apparently am

Content Warnings

jankavdm's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book follows a woman who starts her job at a cinema at the beginning of the book. It follows her challenges that she faces in her workplace, her relationships with her coworkers, the problems that the cinema faces, and lots of love & death.

Honestly, I found this book quite hard to listen to (listened to this book). It was only short, and thank god for that. It made me feel icky and gross, like I was too covered in sticky popcorn physically and emotionally as the main character often is. Thats why I think it's an excellent book, but it will not improve your mood. I read this in the shortest amount of time i've ever read a book, reading for hours at a time just because of how my last couple of days have turned out. That is probably why it made me feel the way it did, because I had spent a lot of time immersed in the book.

In short, this booked was fucked up, and emotional. Feels a bit like too fucked up? So people in the cinema were completely exploited, and this wasn't really discussed for a while of the book, but at the end things changed and my eyes were opened to what happens when something gets taken over by someone who doesn't care, the big chain cinema. Even though the employees were barely making enough to live, they all would've preferred to have the cinema go back to what it was before the big chain came in. It is quite gritty.

Content Warnings

danibeetle's review

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Children of Paradise is brimming with film references, and while I have far from seen all the ones mentioned, they really added to the tone of this book. By far my most loved character was The Paradise Cinema itself, and it’s whale mouth that swallows our protagonist -and us- whole. As the already fragile seams of the cinema come apart during the second half of the book, we see this destruction replicated in its cast of strange workers. This really drove home that there was a clostrophobic and even biological link between the space and its residents. There were moments this novella fell short for me, mostly in its most intense moments, which felt like they ended too quickly. I could see this being purposeful on Grudova’s part though, as each time a horrific incident occurs, it’s always seemingly too fast for the characters to act in time. Overall this was a certified weird, gross, fun little read. The setting brought me a lot of joy, and has me itching to sit in a (hopefully less filthy) cinema chair asap.

Content Warnings

floatinthevoid's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Grotesque. Gross. And I mean gross. An interesting peek of the characters in the beginning, but gets really slow in the middle, then pick up fast towards the and. The pace made me lose my excitement, I don't particularly curious during the middle part of the book. Love the last part when things started going awry and the implicit symbolism I do not have any energy to explore and articulate in this review. I thought that this should end in tragedy, it is expected, nothing twisty but when done right you could have a Das Parfum-esque (I made that word up) chef's kiss ending. I love the atmospheric writing, arguably so, and all the references to film I have never watch. I think people who are cinephile with the same taste as Paradise would love this more than I.

Content Warnings

mayg's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark slow-paced

4.0

I don't know why I like this book. I'm 100% sure that at another point in my life, in different circumstances I would have hated it but I surprisingly loved it. I loved the horror, I loved the disgusting descriptions, I loved how grotesque and weird it felt and I loved the commentary it made.

Content Warnings

biobeetle's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

lindsaylhunter's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.0

Nicey written (ignoring, you know, the graphic descriptions of excrement and vomit). I feel like a lot of it went over my head what with me not being much of a movie buff, but I don't think it's fair to criticise the book for that. Anyone who's film literate and into dark tales would get a real kick out of this one!

Content Warnings

acopytopy's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

aliceintheuk4's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

A truly revolting psychological parody into the world of pretentious film nerds, zero hour contracts and major corporations and the jobsworths that work for them.
The narrating character at the start is pathetic, weak willed and sympathy inducing, surrounded by weird, acidic film buffs. As she is drawn into their world, and the world of the old fashioned cinema they work in, she appears to slowly lose her grip on reality and really start to fit in with the motley band of strange supporting characters.

When the cinema is bought by a huge company

things start to fall apart at a rapid pace and the narrators whole shakily built world comes falling down around her.

Content Warnings

bookbinbaby's review

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Took a while to get into the 'horror' aspect, but by about the middle it all starts to warp, a very dysfunctional group of people that seem to have a particular loyalty to each other and the cinema which almost seems to be characterised as its own partially living character as much a part of them as they are it....everything catalyses and from there it all begins to unravel for these lost souls in hideously tragic ways. Some of what they got up to was beyond belief at some points, and 'The Paradise' seemed a lost world forgotten to all but those who walked through its doors. Still not quite sure what I have read or what to take away from it, what was the point? If you want lighthearted this is the opposite!

Content Warnings

More...