Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Sworn Soldier - What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

54 reviews

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

A marvellous retelling of “The Fall of the House of Usher” with a twist on gender and the destructive aspect of nature upon the human body, this is one of the most spooky books I have read this year. I will never look at hares the same way again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, War, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Cursing, and Death of parent

Beware of strangulation, possession by parasitic fungus, fungi and mold, deterioration of property mirroring deterioration of the human body, infection, and drowning in pools of water.

gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I found this a very fascinating book overall about the horrors of fungi and death. Well, it wasn’t exactly fast paced, there was a good sense of dread everything page that kept me going.

Also, I really enjoyed the use of you, pronouns in the book because it ties into the plot in a very unexpected way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Animal death

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Transphobia and War

linblythe_pub22's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

remimicha's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Medical content, Grief, Death, Chronic illness, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, War, Violence, Body horror, and Alcohol

marshiereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I would really recommend reading the fall of the house of the ushers or the Wikipedia page for it before reading this book so that way it makes sense! I stopped about 25% of the way through and had a much better go of it after doing so! I really liked it! I listened in audiobook format and the narrator did a great job! The pace was slow in the right spots and fast in the same way. Overall an enjoyable Novella if you like horror!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Animal death, War, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, and Murder

radler's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and War

Minor: Suicide

obscurepages's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

 Okay? I loved this?? Fall of the House Usher retelling, fungal horror, and trans/nonbinary MC??? Perfection.

CW: body horror, graphic violence, fatal injuries, injuries due to war, PTSD, amputation, animal death, mild transphobia

Find me elsewhere: Instagram | Twitter | Blog

Marking this book as part of reading challenge: #ReadQueerly2023. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Body horror, Death, Gore, Animal death, and Murder

Minor: Transphobia and Homophobia

amberghinii's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Animal cruelty, and Body horror

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, and Mental illness

skalana's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

4.25

This book was a slow creep at first but by the end it was festering under my skin. However, I found it very predictable even though I’ve never read

Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and didn’t know anything about it before reading What Moves the Dead. It’s probably because I’ve played The Last of Us.

The main character never seemed to have a clue what was happening, but I liked kan observations that provided comic relief. I also loved that the horse Hob was basically a character in the book. 

Tip: I would not recommend attempting to eat while reading unless you are trying to cut down your calorie intake.

I found myself particularly creeped out by the white hair filament things. On the last day that I was reading this the bright light of the afternoon sun was hitting the page at just the right angle, emphasizing the texture of the page itself. The dried white pulp of the wood that formed the page stood out in relief to the point that it partially obscured some of the printed words. That just creeped me out even more because it was as though the book itself was stuffed with the white filaments just like the hare’s lungs. And I was holding the book and touching the pages so now it’s in me too.

So I recommend reading the physical book over the digital for that extra creep factor 👌

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Violence

knightreads's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious 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

4.0

The audio book is nowhere near as good as the actual book. The narrator just fell flat, changed accents for one character half way through making a lovable character into a snooty one, and there was an air of condescending throughout. His American character was the best out of a mixed bag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: War, Violence, and Animal death

Minor: Fire/Fire injury