Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

4 reviews

eclipse799's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Animal death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Medical content, and Rape

deereadstoo's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

I often think about what I would do for love. What lengths I would go to keep someone I love near? Would it be considered obsessive? Abusive? Lonely? Beautiful? These are the questions I asked when I was trying to understand the mind of David. That is until he created such a shitty situation for everyone involved.

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due follows Jessica and David and what seems to be their happy life. David is everything you'd want in a man--brilliant, attentive, kind, and youthful. However, Jessica has always felt that there was something about David that was just out of reach. As people close to Jessica meet violent ends, she is met with an unimaginable truth: more than 400 years ago, David traded his humanity for immortality. This is a secret that he has had to protect at all costs. However, his brethren have decided that David needs to return to his coven, but he is unwilling to leave his family behind. David decides that the only way to keep them together could be the very thing that tears them apart. 

Jessica and David's marriage was always rather obsessive. It often felt like David loved too hard and Jessica felt like her only option was him even when things felt dicey and unsure. This dynamic shouldn't come as a shock to you when you've been made aware that

David was Jessica's professor.

This power dynamic only worsened as David began to feel as though the people in Jessica's life were closing in on their "happy" bubble. His distress made him messy and willing to do the unthinkable to save his family. 

Tananarive has a unique skill when it comes to writing horror. She does it in a way that feels mundane while expertly weaving in parts of Black culture. The reader has a chance to connect with the characters and watch as they unfold in front of you. They aren't perfect but they are beautifully flawed. I think that's part of what makes her storytelling so compelling. I highly recommend this book if you want to delve more into Black horror and thriller. This one has a different taste to it that I love! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, and Child death

queerbooklover03's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

A very interesting concept with some mostly well fleshed out characters and backstories, but the more time I spent in Dawit's head the less I liked him and thus, the sooner I wanted to finish the book. So I ended up pushing the last 10-20 percent of the novel as a quickly as possible to be done with it and done with Dawit. I found very well wrotten, but very frustrating and controlling, quite the opposite of amyone I would want to be with.
I did not like racism of "Night Song" and how they talked about her.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Self harm, Child death, and Slavery

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Body horror, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Vomit, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

Minor: Fatphobia