Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

La casa di sale e lacrime by Erin A. Craig

90 reviews

1997's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The Twelve Princesses retelling with ghosts, murder, and mystery? I’m in. I simply disappeared into this world as soon as I opened the book. Pick this up during a dark and stormy night; you won’t regret it!


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rhie's review against another edition

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

3.75

Great author did an amazing job with the gruesome imagery of this book! It was truly scary and really visceral description. And I loved the unraveling of illusion throughout, as the reader you started to feel as unhinged as the main character and I wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't. I do feel that the romance had strange pacing though, and the ending was odd. It felt a little unsatisfactory to me.



I'm gonna go on a weird little tangent about the aspect I didn't like.
The ending was weird, the dad died I guess but that was an after thought it seemed like and wasn't explained? I guess he died in the fire, which maybe we're supposed to feel like he deserved because he hits women? And the villain wasn't defeated they both just sort of went away. And I was really confused about the terms of the bargain, I thought the deal was for the daugthers to all die and the only way to stop it would be to kill Morella? But then she got killed by the trickster... and he just took his weird random son and left. Shouldn't the main character have defeated him or something? I also felt suspicious of Morella most of the book so I don't know if that was supposed to be a big twist. I did like the twist of them dancing in their rooms with no magic door, that was very ghoulish and spooky.

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queenrivanni's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5


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tkatt20's review against another edition

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

4.0

3.5-4 stars

I have very conflicted feelings about this book. On one hand I loved it, on the other hand, there were some very random things that happened that caught me off guard. For the most part I did love this book and I was so excited to read it when I found out it was a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses. The story is extremely dark and gothic, bordering on demonic, and the writing style really made the characters come alive as they were all very interesting with each one having their own personality and quirks.  The last 1/4 of the book became very fantasy heavy which I found could have been executed better if there was more of that element mentioned throughout the first part of the book, but that was my biggest issue and I got over it fairly quickly. This book had the perfect setup for a series but since it isn't the world-building as a little lacking and the ending seemed fairly rushed. There are some unanswered questions but with the story being first person I feel like it fits well with the narrator and I don't feel dissatisfied with the ending. All in all, I can definitely see myself coming back and rereading this book in the future.


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itisnatal's review against another edition

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

3.75


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jojo_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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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ktkncd's review against another edition

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

3.75


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katrinarose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was a solid enjoyable spooky read! I liked the unreliable narrator, atmosphere, and premise. The romance fell a bit flat for me, though. This book isn’t ground-breaking or incredible, but it was fun

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amandalorianxo's review against another edition

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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? Yes

3.0

I love how unique and twisted this story was. Despite this being a retelling of a fairy tale, Craig made this one of her own. Lots of exploration, especially with the violent / gore ish parts of the novel ! I enjoyed the red herrings and occasional side plots, not making the obvious person the obvious choice right away. Although a little wordy and could have been reduced by a few pages, the ending was such a sweet way to close the book. There were a few deaths that I wish didn’t happen but the love story that happens was enough to help me push through. 

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graciejames121's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


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