Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

36 reviews

cheruphim's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.5

[reposted from Goodreads]
 This was a blast to read!

The lore and cosmology in it is rich, and the writing lends itself elegantly from third to first to second person. I love the story that Jimenez weaves in this novel, and I can't wait to read more by this author! :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Ableism, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Torture, Violence, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual content

isa_isa's review against another edition

2.5

Just not for me, the story felt too convoluted and slow paced. Very gory and graphic which isn’t my fave.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Torture, Cannibalism, and Death

narzibenoucdel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Blood, Death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: War, Body horror, and Sexual content

inmyths's review

5.0

absolutely adore this type of storytelling 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Blood, Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, War, Cannibalism, Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual violence, and Suicide

ellen_is_reading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

This book is otherworldly. Told as a dream, a story, a play, a dance, it is lyrical and magical both in content and writing. The people interject, filling the world with voices and details that make it feel like a rushing river of a story. It's dark, but beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Child death, Blood, Body horror, War, Violence, Murder, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Classism, Medical content, Child abuse, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Misogyny

wordsareworlds's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This book is a masterwork in playing with story structure, culture through diaspora, and basically so many feelings I felt on the verge of drowning in them but would drown happily.

Highly recommend the audiobook version, the narrator was a perfect pairing for the text and gave the entire work that extra dimension that drove home each level of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, War, Body horror, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Grief, Animal cruelty, and Ableism

Moderate: Alcohol and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism

strawb3rrysugar's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-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? N/A

3.5

If you're looking for a grand, epic fantasy that's unlike anything you've read before, and you're patient enough for a non-linear reading experience that shifts POVs (and narration styles) and timelines every couple of pages, I recommend this book. It took a good while for me to "get into" it, or to even really know what's going on, but I believe this to be the author's intention - you will have lots of questions and few answers. Also, do look up the TWs ahead of time. This book can get unflinchingly grisly at some points; this does not reflect upon my overall review of the book, but if you can't stomach kind of intense gore, maybe pass on this one. 

As is the case with a lot of 500+ page books, this book plays the long game - you will spend a good portion of it not entirely clued into what's going on. While it starts slow and sometimes lulls in the middle, the third act is excellently crafted. Anyone who loves a gritty, deeply human fantasy would enjoy this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Drug use

Violence, war, trauma, and ableism are described often and in great detail, as they're core themes to the book. So there's a lot of the above, sometimes depicted cruelly - people in power enjoying the suffering of others to a strong degree. There's also many uses of the word cr*pple, and a sickly talking tortoise that's called "the Defective one." Some of the ableism is directed at mc Keema since he only has one arm. A lot of vomit scenes/mentions. A lot of references to bodily functions in general - piss, poop, and so on. Sexual content includes references to pornographic tablets sold by a street vendor and some sexual interactions with the main two MCs, eventually

culminating into a brief sex scene at the very end

The emperor's treatment of the empress in flashbacks could allude to sexual abuse.

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• 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: Body horror, Violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, War, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, and Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Homophobia

shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Ableism, Vomit, and Cannibalism

Minor: Abandonment, Excrement, Homophobia, and Suicide

augustriver's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, and Violence