Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

42 reviews

hwesta's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

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

4.5

I don't read a lot of horror, and the handful of times I have it hasn't done much for me even when I could tell the book was otherwise well written. I had to stop reading this book two or three times because I was so unsettled and needed to step away.

Very good book, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the underpinnings of the horrible things, I never want to think about mushrooms or hares again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gore, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Vomit, Sexism, and War

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Solid horror, very creepy, super cool universe--love how the main character's culture has a distinctly gendered soldier class that many readers would classify as non-binary. Also one of the only books I've read with a character with tinnitus, whose disability was well integrated in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Chronic illness, Body horror, Confinement, Grief, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent, Suicide, Ableism, Classism, Self harm, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

tifftastic87's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 It took me a minute to decide if this was a 5 ⭐️. In the end because I had to think about it, it's not. But it's close. 

I really loved how the characters interact, especially Easton and Hob the horse. I like the simple use of pronouns woven into a made up foreign language and how the culture is heavily featured in Easton's character. I loved that there was an English woman who was a mycologist as one of the unlikely heroes. 

This was a fun story and I found myself wishing for more.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Blood, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Death, Alcohol, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Gore and War

Minor: Vomit

dustghosts's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Confinement, Medical content, Terminal illness, Death, and Vomit

Minor: Transphobia and War

annact's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book has it all... gender fuckery... sentient fungi...

So much fun. Imagery that will stick with me for awhile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Medical content, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit

hazeyjane_2's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

A very enjoyable, subtle horror book. Far too many horror stories have a narrator who is essentially just a camera (proxy for the viewer and there to record), and come to an abrupt stop with "And then the ghost/giant worm/eldritch horror erupted out of the ground and ate everyone. The end." Ruins the suspension of disbelief but also cheapens the whole story. I mean, I know you can sum up any genre in the same way; but in most quest-style fantasy, but there is at least an attempt at a reasonable explanation behind the McGuffin.

Kingfisher doesn't fall into this trap. She builds up the suspense by creating the fully fledged character of Alex Easton, who is an ex-soldier come to visit her childhood friend Madeline. Actual emotions, actual misconceptions, science (yay!) in the form of a female mycologist, and everything bubbling away just beneath the surface.

The brilliant thing about this story is its sense of realism and plausibility. Kingfisher's tidbits are just subtle enough, and Easton's reactions to them just doubtful enough, to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering if this is truly a supernatural story or if there is some mundane solution to the dilemma. I actually googled the fungus to find out if it was real, because it reminded me so much of the zombie ant fungus. 

Side note: It was refreshing to see a military where sex characteristics truly don't matter, so, this definitely isn't a complaint. But the sentence about "people who did not want to *be* women" rubbed me a bit the wrong way. I felt that could've been worded differently. There is nothing wrong with being a woman. Changing your clothing and pronouns does not change your sex. It may change the way people perceive you, but it does not change your actual biology (unless I missed something, and this story has some magic that allows you to become truly androgynous). 

I assume that Kingfisher was trying to have her cake and eat it too: both evoke the misogyny of the late 19th century and also find a way to evade it... which I highly appreciate, don't get me wrong. I liked the way she sidestepped it.

But this is fiction. Kingfisher could easily have ignored real-world history and written an alt history in which women as a class *hadn't ever* been subject to sex-based oppression. Not even a matriarchal society, just a society where no one would have blinked at a female scientist and where women had always been soldiers without question. The anecdote about how women came to join the army felt especially on the nose. We don't always have to centre the masculine experience. Or she could've made three sexes, with no further explanation needed (male, female and ka/kan), or no sexes at all. 

As it stands, in a book where men and women exist,  women *are* an oppressed class and sex roles are clearly similar to those of the late 19th century in our world, I would've liked a bit more information on how Galacia's sworn (and Gallacian society in general) managed to overcome the hardwired sex binary so fast, and whether this was in the military or everywhere else as well. I realise this wasn't that story, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Minor: War and Vomit

nyssa_jo's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Body horror, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol and Grief

Minor: Vomit and Suicide attempt

kristinrdub's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wonderfully creepy reimagining of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Terminal illness, and Animal death

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

nyssa_jo's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Transphobia

Minor: War, Murder, Vomit, Body horror, Grief, Alcohol, and Suicide

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This novella is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher and follows the same broad strokes of that story's plot. This is a horror story and does have some creepy parts, but there's an overall cheerful tone to most of it that makes it a quick easy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Animal death

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Gore, Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Minor: Transphobia, Drug use, Misogyny, War, Vomit, Violence, and Suicide