Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy

88 reviews

archaicrobin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Mary is about a sincerely weird middle aged woman with identity issues who returns to her verbally abusive aunt’s home in hopes of reliving her past and finding out who she is. Unfortunately, Mary is tied to the town in ways she never expected and is haunted not just by her past, but by actual malevolent spirits only she can see. 

This one is a gory, weird, humorous, and empowering novel about how society views middle aged woman mixed with a violent twisted cult led by a misogynistic serial killer and kooky townspeople. 

Mary was hard for me to get into at first just because Mary herself it is not very likable to begin with and the story moves a little slowly. However, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because once things start happening they don’t stop! I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, and recommend it to anyone looking for a horror novel that’s disturbing and twisty but feminist and reflective.  Check content warnings for sure, this one is gory. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Misogyny, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Sexism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Chronic illness, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore

morganmay's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

I absolutely loved this book. If you read it you HAVE to read the author’s notes (one at the beginning and one at the end) as they are a huge part of the reason I loved this. I won’t give too much away, but it definitely went a different direction than I predicted and I will keep parts of Thai book with me forever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Cancer, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Stalking, Misogyny, Bullying, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Violence, and Trafficking

julesbarthe10's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Body horror, and Emotional abuse

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

This was just okay for me. It was way too long and unfocused in places but it had a few good scares and some of the stuff with the ghosts was great. I get what the author was trying to say with the ending but I'm not 100% sure it worked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Stalking, Blood, Child abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Religious bigotry, Vomit, and Child death

jules_withaxe's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Animal death, and Gore

kkalicky94's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Murder, Animal death, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

crystalgem's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

1.5

I couldn’t get over how poorly written this was. The main character is probably the most bland, unlikeable character I’ve ever read about, and the absolute clusterfuck of a plot is honestly terrible. What was the point of any of it? So many twists and turns, none of them surprising or meaningful.

The whole book is quite serious and then we have a character saying things like “queef” as a joke. She kills her aunt by stuffing porcelain statues down her throat and somehow when she becomes a ghost, she’s cracking jokes and hovering around like this is a Disney movie.

Why are we referencing demons and religion, but then none of that is even relevant, however reincarnation - oh, that part is real. Seeing ghosts? Real. Oh wait, and the ghosts are actually furies, not ghosts. You know, from Greek mythology. Throw that in there. And they can touch people (only if someone encourages them, though.) And it’s a book about middle age - actually, no, it’s a book about misogyny. Wait, no, it’s a book about accepting death. Except, okay, it’s actually about - ope, I just realized I don’t care.

After reading the mention of Azazel, I was hoping we’d see some cool theological horror a la Hereditary, but alas, that was just me getting my hopes up.

Would not recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

bookish_ann's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Blood, Gore, and Misogyny

jamieleepilk's review

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

mondovertigo's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Gore, Body horror, and Body shaming

Moderate: Sexual violence and Kidnapping

Minor: Excrement