Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

8 reviews

kittykaz's review against another edition

This was written by A Man. And he kept referencing Lovecraft.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Car accident, and Death

roadesntoades's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-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

4.25

A strange conglomeration of horror, fairytale, and depressing reality this book really takes you across all genres it seems and leaves you at the end asking, where is the rest. Something that the author does on purpose. Throughout the book you are teased as to who or what the antagonist is, why it is Noah, why his family is involved to reach a somewhat titled ended.

While I think the ending of him taking the place of his family and becoming apart of the City is twist that seems obvious yet shocking is is what he ends his narrative with that sticks even more.“Oh God. It hurts.” And that’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less. We are even told my him he wanted to end the story where it ends, not where it is happy. Something I think is refreshing in horror, with authors usually be afraid to let their drama end not in bright hopeful joy but reality that this is going to hurt.

. My only real critique is that it seems to use sex as a shock and awe tactic to up some of the horror or confusion as to end.

There is pedophilia, grooming, statutory rape, homophobia, religious trauma, dubious consent; among other triggers that just don’t get a build up to or a warning or notion it was going to happen. <spoiled>. All in all I enjoyed it, except the surprise

monster fucking

like I coulda used a basic ass warning for that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Sexual content, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, and Grief

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, and Infidelity

Minor: Ableism, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, and Incest

brianna_moye's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Grief, Death of parent, and Cancer

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Car accident, and Gore

trailmixraisins's review

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

What if monsters were not just our imagination but living alongside us, watching us? A creepy story of Lovecraftian horror that follows a family for three generations.

The sexual turn it took about three-quarters of the way in was kind of gross and off-putting. I would've enjoyed it much more without that aspect.

The world-building was a little weak, but it was mostly cohesive throughout.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Sexual content

Moderate: Car accident, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Kidnapping

Minor: Death, Gore, Grief, Torture, and Mental illness

malloryfitz's review against another edition

dark mysterious

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, and Torture

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Abortion

rupesaltai's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• 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

**Content warning: grooming**

I really wanted to like A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill. Parts of it I really did like, and the overall story is engaging and keeps you hooked until the very end. However, I felt that there are so many topics this book aimed to cover (family trauma, emotional neglect, the looming presence of the unknown, some aspects of horror, teen drama, even some aspects of erotica), that the main focus of the story got muddled along the way.

To me it felt like a wave of very deeply moving sections intermingled within a binge-worthy low energy Netflix teen show. Definitely worth a look but not what I had expected it to be. I also kept changing my expectations along the way because the intensity and depth of the story kept oscillating so much for my own personal taste. The ending, which was the most engaging part of it all, felt too short and rushed, and I'm left with the feeling that the whole book and its narrative could have been so much more.

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading it by any means. It's an enjoyable book. But that's pretty much it. There isn't much horror to it (although the author has mentioned how he drew a lot of inspiration from H. P. Lovecraft, which is mostly apparent in the naming of the book sections), and its darkness was often subdued and not really brought forward to its full capacity in my own personal view. I still enjoyed reading it and never once felt that it got boring or slow.

However, I should add that the story involves the grooming of a young boy, and this disturbing aspect is never really confronted (it's mentioned once by an accessory character who is promptly discarded), but rather is turned into a love story. This left me feeling icky from the very moment it starts around halfway in the book, and it never really went away.

All in all, a good read that could have been a lot more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse

wcsheffer's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The start of this book was such a win for me and unfortunately it took a turn in a very different direction that I enjoyed much less.  The Publisher's Weekly review sums up my thoughts quite well! 

I found the author was way too focused on describing boring and quite creepy sex scenes than developing an interesting plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Sexual content

charleyroxy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness