Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

94 reviews

r_a_bell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The perfect example of what a stand-alone should be! You get all of the story of a trilogy in one book. The beginning journey did seem a little pointless in the end, and I kind of wish it had been a bit shorter if it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. However, it was still enjoyable to read and didn’t feel unnecessarily drawn out. I love how realistic it was its depiction of social structures and relationships, especially in regard to religion. I also really liked the end! It didn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow just because that’s what the author thought readers would want. The ending was realistic and true to the story, yet satisfying, and it left that little kernel of hope that everything would end up as a “happily ever after.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

There's some really good stuff in here, and some bad. 
There's an obvious macguffin (the Turul barely has a function gtfo) but there's also enjoyable plot twists and turns. 
The love story was predictable but enjoyable. 
The sexual tension and build up is nice and slow but then gets resolved quite suddenly and unrealistically.

Also we didn't even get a real smut scene after all that buildup??? So needless to say I was a little disappointed with that resolution.

 

Mostly I really liked the worldbuilding. Even though I'm still not completely clear on all the countries and their motivations, the world building really shines when it comes to religions and ethnic groups. In this story alone there are 3 fleshed out religions. They're all original in their own way even if some of their inspirations are quite obvious (The Yehuli faith seems like a mix of Judaism and Islam to me, and the Patritian faith has elements of Catholicism). 

However the character work is a bit so-so. It took me a while to warm up to Évike because she is a bit of a cliche when it comes to fantasy protagonists. Same goes for Gaspar. Almost all the other characters in this story are irrelevant. None of them get really outspoken personalities. Tuula and Szabin are interesting in theory, but only get about an alinea each dedicated to their personalities and general characteristics. Katalin doesn't get any personality traits beyond 'bitch' until the last 10% of the book. It's a bit of a shame. 

There's also some plot contrivances that kind of annoyed me. For example:

About 50ish percent into the book Évike and Gaspar get attacked by some kind of sex demon which makes them very horny. The only function of this scene is to speed up their relationship by them admitting they're sexually attracted to each other. The demon is never relevant again, and it is quite obvious that the author just couldn't think of another way to make the stubborn Évike and the stoic Gaspar admit anything to each other.

The characters also seem to fast travel in the later chapters. In the early chapters of the book it is emphasized again and again that the environment is rough and locations are far away. This seems realistic and the traveling by itself takes weeks. Later in the book the characters seem to travel between those same locations in a matter of days or even hours because the pacing demands it. Like, I understand why the author wrote it this way, but it did pull me out of the story a bit. 

Over all, it's a very flawed book but I did enjoy it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Sexual content, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

elliefox's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, and Blood

anitaforthewin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.75

The book’s arc really took off in the second half but for the first half (up until they get into the city) it felt like it was trying to tell different stories and I kept thinking “oh this is the main plot” but then it would just end or sputter out which left me feeling very disjointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, and Murder

madde_ely's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, and Antisemitism

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Antisemitism

Minor: Bullying, War, and Classism

urnkurtz's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Genocide and Self harm

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

maiadunleavy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Bullying, Genocide, Colonisation, and Deportation

16rcampbell's review against another edition

There was a lot of politics and religion in this book -- way more than I was expecting -- which is normally fine, if I know that's what I'm getting into first. Regardless of the surprise of it, all of the metaphors and symbolism felt way too literal. It's blatantly obvious who is being cast in which roles, which religions we're talking about, etc. Instead of creating her own religion with which to expose the abusive, racist, and sexist under AND overtones of religion (a certain religion in particular) and the horror that comes with an organized religion like this, it felt like a copy and paste. If I wanted to have those kinds of discussion, I would have picked up a non-fiction book. I understand the frustrations, and share many of the same sentiments and beliefs as the author seems to encourage, but reading this just made me angry. I encounter enough of the bs of the "love interest" in my everyday life, I don't need to relive those comments, beliefs and arguments in a fantasy book. I am all for using fiction as a way to digest and discuss contemporary issues, but the way it was presented here made me feel frustrated and angry instead of allowing me to become involved in the conversation. And there's never a break. It's constant. If we're not shitting on each other's religions, we're condemning their politics. If not that, we're fighting some monsters (and not well). Or we're sleeping. I don't understand characters' choices, I don't feel connected to them, I'm not really rooting for them because if they succeed it's still a shitty end result, and I don't like a single person in the book so far. The only reason I read this far is because I felt like I had to be missing something since it was recommended and praised so many times. 

I also felt absolutely no chemistry between the main character and the supposed love interest. Accents are used purely for aesthetic purposes instead of and indication of pronunciation and it didn't look good and just confused me as I read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment