Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis

2 reviews

tetrootz's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Abandonment, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Blood, Child death, Stalking, Murder, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Rape, Physical abuse, Animal death, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Death, Child death, and Bullying

laurelhell28's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.25

This is a book which you do not know where the story is going or even how will it end. It's bizarre. This is no a love story, although the movie decided to take that route, and wether or not the main character has a happy ending depends on the reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Abandonment, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, and Cannibalism

Minor: Cursing, Mental illness, Death, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Maren is a cannibal, although she is is more of a ghoul type, she refers to herself as an "eater". Maren's urge to devour people only comes when she develops close feelings for a person. This has led her and her mother to live isolated and always on the run. However, after her 16 birthday her mother decides she can't keep living like that, so she abandons Maren. Left to her own devices Maren sets on a journey to find her father (since she doesnt have anywhere else to go), she encounters two other eaters, the first an old man called Sully who appears as a friendly figure and the second is Lee, her love interest who makes her feel less of a monster and more like a girl. Maren continues her journey to find her father (an apparent eater as well) alongside Lee. They develop feelings for each other but-since they are cannibals-this is far from meaning they'll get a happy ending, at least together. At last, they find her father, but he doesn't give her answers nor a solution to her nature, he is stranded in mental institution where she meets another colorful character that wants to be eaten. She is attacked by Sully (who happens to be her grandfather) but luckily she escape. Maren accepts who and what she is and decides to stay with Lee, so together they crash on college girl dorm (who was eaten by Lee) until Sully attacks them again, Lee eats him and they finally have their close romantic moment. But this only leads to Maren devouring him, so now, she is completely alone, but finally accepting her nature, she stays on campus working on a library and she finds her next victim, a guy who is been flirty with her. Thus, ending with her being her fully literally maneater self. I think the cannibalism in this particular story could be a metaphor for a lot of things. To me personally, seems like it's a metaphor for generational trauma that leads to mental illness and destructive coping mechanisms that end up hurting others aswell yourself (since its stated eaters are born out of eaters) and how being aware of this does not make you better nor makes a good person. Maren and Lee are two individuals that share the same destructive-all consuming nature, extremely toxic for each other, they enable one another in their proclivities. However, nobody else could understand them, and they are not this psychopathic villains who wish to harm people, but they are monsters, so in a very sick twisted way, they are made for each other. Obviously, Maren's nature would not allowed this connection to go that much longer, so eventually she consumes him completely. Which leads me back to the generational trauma theme, she eventually becomes just like her grandfather and the cicle of abuse repeats.