Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

234 reviews

jscoot22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Gore, and Torture

kchen138's review against another edition

dark funny 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

3.25

You can definitely see the growth in Hendrix’s writing. Amy is like a lot of his main characters, headstrong, flawed, middling luck, but reasonable. I would’ve loved to see more of her humor/personality come through in the middle of the book rather than the semi-one note of fear/disbelief in what’s happening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

SPOILER If Hendrix were to write this book today, we would’ve definitely gotten another third act of Amy and Basil finding the other coworkers. I thought örsk was going to be more connected to the big bad than they were. Typical corporate evil rather than supernatural. I wanted more backstory to the prison and who exactly was sending out the “Help” texts. Concept is super cool. I read the audiobook but would love to check out the physical for its design and detail. Not bad but not my favorite story from one of my favorite authors.

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Like The Office or Superstore but make it fantastical horror. There were scenes that grossed me out so much I was physically gagging. There was also lots of humour, but I found that zapped out by the end. Strong start and middle, but I definitely lost interest by the end. Liked this more than The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and I might check out more by him in the future after this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Vomit, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Torture

lottieingham's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Confinement

Moderate: Blood, Torture, Gore, and Death

krestomanci's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Excrement

kalira's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

What a very well-written horror (story? experience? yes?); it was also a well-done slope that had me cringily anticipating Bad Things, easing up and even laughing, thinking it wouldn't be so horrific after all, and then . . . hooboy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Body horror

Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Death

Minor: Alcoholism

eye trauma, finger/hand trauma (self-inflicted and not)

alamayhem_reads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.75

This book was so fun and definitely creepy! Although it wasn’t my favorite Hendrix book, I did enjoy my time reading it and absolutely loved the physical book being exactly like a furniture catalogue!

I want to start this off by saying I absolutely love Hendrix’s writing and will enjoy anything that he writes. His sarcastic humor but also ability to create a downright terrifying scene is unmatched. He is an incredible horror author and includes every aspect that I am looking for in a horror story. Also his tongue in cheek writing always leaves me laughing out loud.

This story was so much fun and I absolutely loved the descriptions of the Orsk items at the beginning of each chapter.

I loved the detailing of the items becoming more and more sinister as the plot became darker as well — that was fantastic and really another great addition that was terrifying but also hilariously sarcastic at the same time!

I did find some of the explanations to be a little lacking toward the big climax. I think I needed a little bit more context because I was feeling a bit confused and not following as well as I would’ve liked to. So that’s the only thing that really stopped me from loving this book. It almost felt anticlimactic because I wasn’t fully grasping it from the brief chapter or two it was explained.

I enjoyed all of the  creepy elements of this book and definitely did find myself both grossed out and uncomfortable while reading, which happens to me every time I read a book by Hendrix, so bravo to him once again for completely making me cringe as I read haha.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time reading this book and having the little details of the physical book did elevate my experience. My only complaint was the lack of explanation for the reason behind the haunting. In the end, I rate this book 3.75/5 stars! 🌟 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Vomit, and Gore

milly_gm01's review against another edition

challenging dark funny tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Murder, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Body horror, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

embee007's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

"It was the kind of repetitive labor that killed your soul."

Quick, fun read. The joys of working in a very strict retail place,

compared to a jail, when it's is haunted by one.

“Orsk: Our Home Is Forever”

This very quickly goes from light, sarcastic, & easy going, to very dark, & traumatic (for our MCs).

"The only thing it didn’t offer was coffins. Yet."

“There was a prison here, and we built a new prison on its ruins, and all the old prisoners came out to give it a try.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Stalking, Death, Murder, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Gore

ericas_booked's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I actually really liked this book. Grady Hendrix really has a style of writing that is almost laugh-out-loud funny at times, but can take a serious turn within even a sentence. I really like that. 

I wasn’t really feeling this book to begin with - 
I didn’t like the main character out of the gate, as she has the exact opposite of a likeable attitude, but as I kept reading, everything began to slot into place, and everything was an intentional choice by the author. 

This was a solid read, and I look forward to reading more of this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Blood, Gore, Torture, and Murder