Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

176 reviews

bo0ks_are_cool91's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

LOVE the world and the characters, but I felt kinda slumped during the middle. It was lots of fun following the mystery and the payoff (and that cliffhanger?????!!!)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Gore, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Alcohol

tell_them_stories's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Colonisation, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Body horror, Classism, and Medical content

Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Parasitic lice-like insects

anna_333's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Nothing like I expected, loved it's gritty darkness while maintaining likable characters.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Physical abuse

megaroo93's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It’s a very dark and gruesome book… I was disappointed that it didn’t really feel like Romeo & Juliet. The ending was chaotic and I didn’t completely follow it

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Body horror

litliz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Self harm, Stalking, Suicide, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Gore, Bullying, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

moondaisyy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Violence

lujisa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror and Gun violence

omimogi's review against another edition

mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

i was entranced. an enjoyable reading experience for sure!

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Body horror

m4rtt4's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Secret Shanghai is officially one of my favourite world's I've ever visited, and I'm glad to know the story doesn't end here. I enjoyed almost everything — the monster plotline could have been executed a little better — but I'm only taking 0.5 stars off for that. My absolute favourite thing in addition to the dynamic between Juliette and Roma was

everything about the brain-infesting insects (I'm a biology student...), though I must say the science stuff also felt a bit off and/or too modern for the time, for example the term 'viral' wasn't really used until the 1940s, and what were those machines in Lourens's lab, how did they work?

I need more specific answers, I'm curious — in all seriousness, I'm just a nitpicking nerd. Nevertheless, Gong has done an excellent job researching and creating all this, big kudos to her <3

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Body horror, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Drug use, Transphobia, and Alcohol

jeyjeyyy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.5

Fun book, nothing stood out exactly but I definitely found it interesting. 
I really liked the historical references and it did teach me a lot about society in Shanghai at that time. However, the fantasy plots did not make a lot of sense to me. I also did not particularly care about what was happening. The romance also felt a bit bland, it was really great at the beginning but I found its ‘resolution’ a bit too easy. Kind of felt like the characters lost most of the fun aspects of their personality about halfway through… What I wanted was angst upon angst and enemies and hatred and tensionand a LOT more romance. I did not really get that. This sounds iind of bad but I wnated it to be more… toxic? I mean this is Romeo and Juliet !!
Not to say I didn’t like the book, it was just not my favourite. 
Also REALLY loved the side characters, especially Kathleen and Marshall and Ben. Excited to see more of them. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racism, Medical content, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Sexism, Death, Gun violence, and Violence