Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Șarpe și porumbel by Shelby Mahurin

33 reviews

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Violence, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Hate crime, and Vomit

Moderate: Cursing, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

selestre's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Kidnapping, Self harm, Animal death, Death of parent, Sexism, and Child death

bzliz's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

Can a witch and a witch hunter fall in love? Louise aka Lou has been on the run for a few years, doing whatever it takes to survive, though she never could have dreamed her survival meant marrying someone hellbent on destroying her and her kin. Reid was raised to believe in the wickedness of witches and to bring about their destruction above all else. His sense of righteousness leads him into a marriage with Lou despite his condemnation of her criminal ways. 

The book is well paced and establishes stakes early on while continuing to drop bits of lore along the way to keep readers hooked. Lou is an endearing scamp and Reid is a very good boy learning that the world isn’t necessarily what he thought. They both grow to understand each other’s point of view as their relationship develops. A very fun read despite one of my least favorite tropes- closing out the book with a lead-in to the next which the audience has no context for but it feels like it’s supposed to be a mic drop moment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Blood, Death, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Vomit and Sexual content

ldermer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Vomit, Child abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexual harassment

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, War, Gore, Murder, and Sexism

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to read this book because I had seen this book all over bookstagram and booktok and wanted to read more new authors this year. My first sort of thoughts is that I wanted more from this book, and I didn’t get it. 

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they get burned. As a huntsman of the Church, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. But when Lou pulls a wicked stunt, the two are forced into an impossible situation – marriage. Lou, unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, must make a choice. And love makes fools of us all. This is a young adult romance fantasy novel. 

Okay, Ansel and Coco saved this book. I love Ansel. If he was the main character – this book would have been so much bloody better. Coco is a badass protective friend and I want her in my life. But that was about it that I liked. They saved the book. The storyline took me a while to get into as it was quite weak and I was hoping it was a bit of darker romance even with YA but it just barely felt like YA or NA and just felt . . .  average. Reid really annoyed the crap out of me and as the main character he just wasn’t “OH MY GOD I WANT HIM TO SAVE ME!” It was just a bizarre and strange read. There wasn’t any slow burn either. It went from we hate each other to we would die for each other in the space of like three chapters. 

I really struggled with this book and hopefully now I’m understanding the characters and the world, hopefully I will be able to enjoy the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, War, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Torture

michelerr55's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide and Torture

feelingfrazzled's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Abandonment

Moderate: Genocide

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death of parent, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Body horror, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Blood, Physical abuse, Self harm, Gore, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

evnfig's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

It was entertaining enough, most of the characters were enjoyable, the magic system was interesting, and the world was buffed out far enough that I felt invested and wanted to finish it.
What I appreciated most about this book was the sudden dark turns it took. I tended to think better of the novel as a whole when things got twisted and kinda fucked up, like it legitimized it somehow.
My biggest hold up was probably the writing? Lots of actions and descriptions seemed overdramatic when they didn't need to be, it made the writing seem juvenile, but I guess this is YA, so?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cursing, Death, Blood, and Body horror