Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher

16 reviews

dreamowl24'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, Medical content, War, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Body horror, and Chronic illness

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicide

bbygirl21's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I think this is a good book. It's not something I would usually read, but I'm really glad I decided to read this. 

The fact that this is an Edgar Allan Poe retelling of the fall of the house of usher, is what had me wanting to read it. I haven't read much of poes work and didn't read the short story this is based on but I thought it would be an interesting read and this was definitely interesting. 

It is very creepy and unsettling. Which was to be expected with the type of book this is. I do wish it would've been slightly longer so we could see if what they did in the end actually worked or not. But I'm glad the remainder of the characters in the end happened to be fine and weren't infected by what was surrounding the house and lake. 

I would definitely recommend this book for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death

Minor: War and Suicide

sammirosewater's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Animal death, Death, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide, Torture, Terminal illness, Violence, and Stalking

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

kate_mare's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is the definition of a perfect horror book. The plot coudve been predicted but it turned out to be even worse! The writer described the characters pain perfectly and described details in a perfect way. Definitly a 5 star read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Chronic illness, Murder, Animal death, Death, Medical trauma, Body horror, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, and Addiction

neni's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Great short read for Halloween. The gothic haunted manor vibes were awesome, the inclusion of fungi as a horror mechanism worked really well with the setting and the main character was funny and likeable. This author is good at creating spooky stories with frequent funny dialogue in the middle which I like because it breaks the tension and makes the characters more likeable. The ending felt rushed and a bit unsatisfying but I understand this wasn't supposed to be an incredibly developed story. Reccomend if you're looking for a quick spooky read.

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Content Warnings

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

sunny_bumblebee's review against another edition

mysterious

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence

vaguely_pink's review

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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Transphobia, War, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, and Vomit

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

this was so indescribably horrifying and bone-chilling. it’s a twist on a familiar story but didn’t fail to still make me quiver. i would recommend this to anyone who likes horror, classic retellings, and fungi.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Grief, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Animal death

ramalam98's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

In a few words: fantastic cover, grossly entertaining and fascinating read.

In more words:

Spoiler

This isn’t as horror horror as I was expecting it to be but the creepy vibes were immaculate. As a zoologist I’ve always been equal parts horrified and fascinated by the ‘zombie’ Cordyceps fungus so the realisation of that being where the book was going was stomach-churning.

Even with that realisation the book never went where I expected it to. The intelligent life, the (mainly) happy ending and the delightful characters all caught me off guard.

The narration is surprisingly light-hearted, which is partly my only problem with the book as it felt quite modern and it was only when it explicitly placed the time as the late 19th century that I had any idea when it was meant to be set (aside from the Beatrix Potter easter egg!). It’s not too much of a problem though as it was very fun to read, often incredibly funny and managed to not take me out of the tense creepiness too much. 

The addition of neopronouns and culture of ‘Gallacia’ was excellent also. And I loved Hob! 

Overall I’d recommend this to pretty much anyone and it’s been my favourite read for quite a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol and Animal cruelty