Reviews

Body Shocks by Ellen Datlow

wall0w's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Standouts for me were "The Truth That Lies Under Skin and Meat" by Cassandra Khaw, "Natural Skin" by Alyssa Wong, "The Look" by Christopher Fowler, and "Spores" by Seanan McGuire. 

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kmburgess_'s review

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

finleyfrogreads's review

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dark
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

victorward's review

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2.0

2,45/5

- Travellers Stay: 2
- Toother: 1
- Painlessness: 3
- You go where it Takes you: 3
- A Positive: 4
- La beauté sans vertu: 1
- Subsumption: 4
- Spar: 2
- It's just the heat: 2
- Atwater: 4
- The Transfer: 2
- Welcome to Mengele's: 3
- Black Neurology: 2
- Cuckoo: 4
- Cinereous: 3
- The Truth that Lies under Skin and Meat: 3
- Natural Skin: 3
- The Lake: 3
- I'm Always Here: 1
- The Look: 2
- The Old Women Who were Skinned: 3
- Spores: 3
- Sweet Subtleties: 2
- Elegy for a suicide: 2
- Skin City: 1
- A True Friend: 2
- What I found in the Shed: 1
- Fabulous Beasts: 3
- Tissue Ablation: 2

annarella's review

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4.0

I wanted to read this arc as it features some of my favorite authors and I was curious about reading Christopher Fowler (I liked The Look, surely no Bryant&May) and Seanan McGuire.
It's not the first anthologies edit by Ellen Datlow I read and I can say I liked it even if not all the stories are the same level and some were more terrying than others.
It's a light book to read if you want to escape: some descriptions are quite brutal and horrorific.
It made me discover some new to me authors and appreciated other side of some I love.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

ripxw's review

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

2.25

yrthroat's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

cursivewolf's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

4.0

I didn’t like all of them but the ones I did like, I loved. Such diverse kinds of body horror, some explicit and some creeping.

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owlribbon's review

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challenging dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0


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otherworlds's review

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

3.5

There were some really great stories in here, mixed in with the mediocre and the truly insufferable. (Seriously, I think Files' transphobic slur-ridden story should not have been included, and I never want to see a male writer's take on women's body image issues ever again.) My favorites were The Lake, Painlessness, and The Old Women Who Were Skinned.