Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

28 reviews

amberrenfrey's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

Minor: Body horror, Homophobia, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

isaaah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, and Self harm

gracefully_jk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia and Fatphobia

Minor: Body shaming, Body horror, Confinement, Death of parent, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Child abuse

Any violence/horror type stuff is entirely just threats/jokes made by a child—nothing actually happens.

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Misogyny, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, and Homophobia

atlas_shruggs's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

V. E. Schwab described this book like getting wrapped in a warm, gay blanket, and going into this book it was exactly what I needed. It was warm, it was comforting, it was jarring, it was uncomfortable, it was like lying on a cloud or dancing with rainbows. It was so vibrant. The shift from the scenes in the city to the scenes in Marsyas felt like switching from black and white to a world of technicolour. The character creation was beautiful, and watching them blossom over the course of the book felt like I was watching something wonderful happening before my very eyes. 
I don’t feel like I can give this book a more solid review. It was perfect. It was a feeling more than a thought. I loved every moment of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Abandonment

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Hate crime

nicole_schmid's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

4.25

(As I was not aware, at the time of reading, of the quite horrifying implications of taking genocide on Native American peoples as inspiration about such a rather light-hearted story, this fact is not taken into consideration in my review.)

This book was quite slow and seemed to drag on, but it also seemed realistic. Linus is a man used to routine and a monotonous life. That this might be mirrored in his recountings makes sense. Not having read any other of Klune's works, I cannot say whether this is intentional or not. It also seemed to easy at times: There is a village that hates everyone from the island. But do not worry, they just need to talk to them to understand that they are normal people, too, though they might look different, and voilà - wide-spread acceptance! Linus holds the power of suggesting doing things differently or at all and it all working out in the end as if by magic.

It is great to see Linus become aware of the systematic unfairness of the system he's working in and then actively see him take a stance against it. I would have prefered it if it went beyond

a brief reveal that he took all files to a reporter to reveal how bad the system is à la wikileaks

, but I understand that this is not a story about fighting against a discriminatory system, it's a story about two men meeting and falling in love. The intrigue behind Arthur's identity draws you in and makes you guess along.

Overall, though I had wished for a faster pace, I quite enjoyed this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

Minor: Body horror, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

faranae's review against another edition

funny hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Mental illness

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, and Fatphobia

The book handles a wide range of potentially difficult topics with the lightest and gentlest of touches, so I think most of them will not pose a problem. However, Lucy's a bit morbid and has "spiders in his brain", and these elements recur frequently. There is a past confinement incident that is described in some detail towards the end of the book, but it is softened by

knowing the person it happened to has already mostly healed from that trauma.

strange_little_ranger's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Hate crime

Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Eating disorder, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Violence

the book has generally a light tone and does not dwell on painful events too long (it focuses more on institutional violence)—many of the characters have previously been through traumatic events and are healing, so though we hear about their traumas, we don't experience them in real time with the narrative. a lot of the minor content warnings are for graphic threats made by a disturbed child and do not reflect events in the book. if you can read "alice in wonderland," you can read this.

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Abandonment, and Confinement

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Violence