Reviews with content warning for Body horror - And Then I Woke Up

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin

20 reviews

kermit_the_wrong's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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cheye13's review

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mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I was already so intrigued by the premise of this, but it surpassed my expectations. I don't think I was ready for how meta the story would get with discussions of "the narrative." Quickly rocketed to one of my favorite books. It's one of those that I think I'll get more out of with each reread.

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killmoore_'s review

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Go into this one as blind as possible. It's worth it.

A spin on the "infected" trope that left my jaw on the floor. Beautifully written in a way that makes you question your own narrative, a book that builds in suspense through thinly veiled social commentary and doubt.

164 pages of brilliance. I can't recommend this book enough.

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amcleod's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

3.75

This book is an actually fresh take on the zombie apocalypse genre and at the same time an allegory for the American political divide. It was an interesting read with a lot to think about.

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halfass_reviewer's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book reminded me of the movie The Happening. Which is to say I enjoyed it immensely. The plot was interesting. In short, it's about a plague. It's about people who see monsters and people who are monsters. It's about surviving not just the monsters, but the narrative that people create and spread. It's about getting better, or not. What I really loved about this story is that it was told as if the reader was actually a member of the group. This is to say, the narrator talked directly to the reader, which really draws me into the story. It was also a short read so that was a plus as well. I think all in all this was a nice little, horror-adjacent story.

<spolier> My only gripe about the story, besides some of the dialogue tag and placement was Lelila's one chapter where she provided her side of the story. I felt the chapter was unnecessary and although it was good background as to how the infection affected her, it wasn't relevant. I was thinking maybe it would somehow relate to the Val guy she and Spence are chasing or maybe the last few chapters would focus on her, but neither of those things happens. We just get a story about how she breaks promises to her younger self, gets married, has a child whom she may not love, and then murders them. No relevance to anything that's going on before or after the story. Unless I missed the point.

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