Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

312 reviews

jen1804's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Feb 2022: 4.5⭐️
A great first book of this series setting up the characters and the realms.
The book is a little beauty and the beast, a little game of thrones, a little twilight and a little Harry Potter all rolled into one. 
There were times when the story actually gave me goosebumps whilst reading it and I enjoyed the story arc.
Some really great character development, with a strong female MC and some strong male characters I’m looking forward to seeing more of, but there’s also some not so great character development (Tamlin). 
I am excited to see how the series progresses in the next book.
Satisfactory ending? Yes.

Nov 2023 re-read: 4.5⭐️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War

Minor: Emotional abuse

crispyaot's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

egurgens's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I’ve owned the whole series for over a year now, but I never read them until now I’ve heard such good things about it on BookTok, maybe I was just afraid to be disappointed. I was not. 

I’ve heard a few things about the characters, so I was surprised that I disliked Rhys up until the last few chapters, and I greatly enjoyed Tamlin. There is a slight ‘Beauty and the Beast’ aspect, in the hidden curse, but this is so much darker and sexier than that story could ever be. Torture, death, loss, challenges, sacrifices, this book has it all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment

jahnvikaushik's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I read this book within 24 hours. It was captivating. The lore of the world entranced me, made me want to learn more about it.

The characters were adequate, though the typical dystopian novel kind of personalities I had grown to expect. You could replace Feyre with Katniss Everdeen and it would be the same book. I do appreciate Maas’ attempt at making the villain sympathetic - it was effective though we were not shown hr vulnerable side - just the monstrous, which would have made her more likeable. Then again its not necessary for her to be likeable.

The storytelling aspect was lovely. The way that everything tied back perfectly to what we had seen before and seeing that with a new lens after Feyre returned to Prythian was very satisfying.

Love interest wise, I do like Tamlin as a person, he seems lovely although he has been shown to be an insensitive asshole in the past, he seems to be a very gentlemanly character - I absolutely adore the way that he treats Feyre - I mean I get that his intention was to get her to fall in love with him, but we also see authentic aspects of his personality, like with the dying winged faerie. But otherwise I do also enjoy Rhysand’s interactions with my girl, he’s more like the bad boy kinda person which was refreshing after endless chapters of nice guy Tamlin.

Feyre herself was a dull character. Like I mentioned before, she’s your typical normal girl with exceptional bravery. Think Clary Fairchild, Katniss Everdeen, basically the lead of any dystopian/fantasy type novel’s main character. Her moves were predictable and boring, especially since she’s not exactly a smart person. But for some reason I can’t bring myself to dislike her. There’s this certain appeal to be treated specially even if you are unimportant.

The world-building in this book is exceptional, I love the descriptions of the beauty of the fae world, the heart-breaking nature of such intense beauty. The various evil beings in the book were effectively scary.

I did find this book quite slow though. It was veryyyyy draggy, the real action didn’t really start until the last 10-15 chapters. There was just so much buildup to it that it felt too short and concise. I feel like it would have been nicer if more of the book was Under the Mountain but whatever it is what it is.

Overall, good first book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Grief

kidprezident's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content

Moderate: Rape, Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol

kpem's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, Injury/Injury detail

stellarengine's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

bee_a_boo's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail

lisa_m's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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5 stars - no doubt.
Love this book!
Love the characters!
And I can't wait to reread ACOMAF 🖤

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

campisforever's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The major beats are Beauty and the Beast, more or less. For readers particularly attuned to gendered terminology, the terms “fe/male” show up a lot, sometimes in places they don’t necessarily need to be (e.g., “a towering male figure” when it could just be “a towering figure,” etc.; these terms are shorthand for things that can be described otherwise, with thought and care). I can understand the use of these terms insofar as they refer to the “sex” of beings that aren’t human, but they did throw me out of the story occasionally in ways that were annoying, in part because they often operate on assumptions about bodily makeup and gender that I don’t ascribe to. Once I got a feel for how these terms work insofar as they differentiate faerie/human characteristics, I was okay. But I thought it might be helpful for other enby/gender nonconforming folx to know. 

What this book does extraordinarily well is establish a broader nexus of character connections and a wider range for the plot. I don’t think I’ve ever read a first book that set me up so well for the sequels before, and I will read the entire series.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

Be mindful of gendered terms that may cause dysphoria; the romance is pretty hetero