Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Girl in Red by Christina Henry

15 reviews

bella613's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This book felt very unfinished and not just because of the ending. 

Everything from the descriptions of the violence and the behavior and thoughts of the main character were very in-your-face, and didn't feel imaginative or realistically written. I loved the main character so I wish she had been allowed to just be, and not constantly overexplained by the author. 

It read like someone decided to write a dystopia-style version of little red riding hood and stopped there, didn't put any more thought into it. I have no problem with open endings in general, or even with unanswered questions about large plot points. But this book doesn't feel like a story that's meant to make you think in the way that open endings usually do. It almost felt more like an unnecessarily long intro into the real story, than a story itself. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Child death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

barbie_fett's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Hate crime, Murder, Body horror, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism

Moderate: Blood, Death, Gun violence, Racism, and Violence

harleyqueen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I read this in one sitting , an apocalyptic novel of a girl named Red trying to reach her grandma's house and the treacherous journey she faces. I really hope there will be a 2nd one I need to know more !!!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual harassment, and Body horror

aparker89's review

adventurous dark 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

4.5

Ms Henry does it again! Red Riding Hood is just trying to get to grandma's house but many obstacles stand in her way: a pandemic, the loss of society, no easy method of transportation and so much more... Will she ever make it? Or will one of the wolves get her? This is one adventure you won't want to miss!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Gore, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Abandonment, Biphobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Body shaming, Confinement, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Slavery

aely's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Ableism, Blood, Hate crime, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Gun violence, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Vomit

Minor: Torture, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, War, Misogyny, Abandonment, and Medical content

steffi_23's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Vomit, and Racism

fictionista3's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Body horror

aerolich's review

dark mysterious medium-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Racism

aformeracceleratedreader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Overall really enjoyed it. I loved that our main character, Red, is mixed race and enjoyed the brief discourse on race and how some people, even in times of crisis, will gladly let their racism fly. In the beginning when one antagonist basically asks Red her ethnicity upon first meeting, it reminded me of so many people doing it to me. It's annoying to say the least.
I think as a retelling of a fairy tale, it was quite good too. Loved that it was a dystopian kind of setting although it wasn't the best idea for me to read a book on a respiratory pandemic while living through C19 and seeing parallels to how some fictional characters acted and how real life people are acting. Humans are predictable I guess.
<Spoiler>since Red and the kids were able to make it to grandma's safely and that the grandma seems to be alive and safe, I'm believing some of DJ's family made it to him as well. He was such a kind man and he deserved the best
I do wish we got a little more about the

creatures that burst out of people like how it escaped the lab, what even was the point in creating the creatures, how they got inside of people, how they would get rid of them

but reading this after reading Near the Bone it seems the author likes to leave stuff like that pretty open. 
This isn't a perfect book, there was a lot I feel could've been cut down since I could glance through paragraphs and still not miss any of the major story, and it was a little slow here and there, but I was def interested in it the whole time and needed to know what would happen.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Grief, Violence, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Confinement, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

kawooreads's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.0

With every Christina Henry novel I devour, I grow to love the author even more. Her ability to take fairy tales, unravel them, and re-weave into new stories is unmatched. This one, if you can't tell by the cover, is inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. Only this book is in modern times, and Red is trying to cross a plague-ridden land to get to her grandmother's house hidden in the woods, isolated from infection and vigilante survivors. This book was published in 2019, so reading about a societal collapse due to the killer "Cough" was chilling in a post-Covid world. Red is a badass, a young woman traveling through the woods with a survival pack, sharp hand-axe, and a prosthetic leg. As she comes upon survivors, she must vigilantly decide the risk of infection as well as the risk of attack. Convinced she is not a heroine, she performs some pretty heroic acts. As she gets closer to Grandma's house, she begins to gather clues as to what exactly this contagion is and why it's ripping people apart. Nothing is as it seems. I love that in this rendition, there is no damsel in distress, that Little Red Riding Hood fights the "wolves" herself! This book is horror science fiction, so the content warnings include a multitude of moments related to death, body trauma, blood, violence, grief, etc. It's not a pretty story, but it is a good one. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Death of parent