Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Heks & jager by Shelby Mahurin, Sandra Hessels

34 reviews

evnfig's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It was entertaining enough, most of the characters were enjoyable, the magic system was interesting, and the world was buffed out far enough that I felt invested and wanted to finish it.
What I appreciated most about this book was the sudden dark turns it took. I tended to think better of the novel as a whole when things got twisted and kinda fucked up, like it legitimized it somehow.
My biggest hold up was probably the writing? Lots of actions and descriptions seemed overdramatic when they didn't need to be, it made the writing seem juvenile, but I guess this is YA, so?

Content Warnings

neaky__'s review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Things I liked:
• The mechanics behind the white witches. I LOVE how their magic has limits and how the magic is presented. I also liked how the magic has a scent in this universe.
• Relationship between Reid and Lou was fast but surprisingly believable.
• I wasn’t expecting the final “twist” i guess you could say. A cruel twist of fate and i’m excited to see where it will lead in the next book.

Things I didn’t liked:
• I don’t think many of the side characters aside from the main few were developed.
• Some parts are cringey and predictable but overall not too much.

Content Warnings

urreadtome's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

victoriacp769's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

I think this is a great book, not the best one I read, but it’s good and I love this type of stories. Something I will say is that it was really difficult for me to read at the beginning, cause I found the first part of the book really slow and not much was happening.. but then in the second part of the book all the things you where holding on to starts happening, all the spicyness, the challenges, the mistery, everything. It really starts being entertaining and captivating. Also, in the third part of the book it continues on being that way, which is good, but something I did notice is that the author started rushing everything in the last chapters. In the last chapters there is tooo many things going on and too many plot twist and in a certain way it can be good but for me it was really rushed and uneven considering all the other chapters of the book. Also, the end was wayyy too open, I know that maybe she wanted to do that so that more readers would want to reach to the sequel, but personally I think it was a really confusing ending.
Anyways, the book is good, really good, but the writing was not the best.

Content Warnings

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: violence, persecution, religious patriarchy, blood magic, self harm, forced marriage, burning alive, suicide, descriptions of blood and gore, grotesque descriptions/body horror, sex, child abandonment

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin is the first book her trilogy. We follow Lou, a headstrong and spunky witch, who is living in hiding as a thief in a French inspired city, where witches are hunted by Chasseurs. We also follow Reid, the captain of the Chasseurs, and he is stoic, self-loathing, and has a stick up his ass.

While Lou is attempting to steal a magical ring that could protect her from her mother, she is caught and somehow gets entangled in a forced marriage to Reid, to both of their dismays. We get a really good slow burn enemies to lovers that doesn't make me want to scream about unhealthy relationships. I loved Reid and Lou's banter, and how she got him to open up a little.

We get great side characters too! Coco is a badass blood witch of color and is also bi! I love her so much, and I hope we get more of Coco next book. Ansel is my baby and must be protected! Even Beau started to grow on me in the end, especially when Coco gets under his skin.

The world building was great, and I appreciated the magic system for both types of witches. Dames de Blanc get their magic from nature, and nature demands balance. Dames Rouges use blood magic, so their magic comes from within. Excited to learn more about them next book!

Although there was one really steamy part (🌶️❤️‍🔥🥵) I expected there to be more the way people on here talk about this book. It seemed pretty tame to me. Mahurin has infused messages about how at its core, religious patriarchy is about power and control, and if you can't control a thing, you must destroy it. We also get themes on how life isn't black and white, but many shades of gray. I love me some morally gray characters, and Lou fits that. Excited for the next book!

Content Warnings

zabeishumanish's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

4.0

Never have I been so simultaneously delighted and frustrated to read the rest of a series. I love the characters in this book. I don’t think I fully understand the plot, but the characters are strong enough in any situation that knowing the storyline isn’t completely necessary.

Content Warnings

themariner's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

1.75

The first thing you need to know about Serpent & Dove is that it is such a good promise of a book. I mean, who wouldn't love a Nina/Matthias dynamic, a cute love story between warring fronts and nice, cutie-pie sidekicks, all of that peppered with a sprinkle of witchcraft?

The second thing you need to know about S&D is that if you're going in expecting a deep dive into the development of prejudiced characters and the system of belief they were raised in or the gradual destruction of those beliefs as they learn to understand the other side of their conflict and to love one another or even a meaningful take on the real, historical witch-hunting and witch-burning this story was based on, you will be massively disappointed. No, I'm not salty about it. (Yes, I am).

I want to start with something posivite because I have a lot of negative points to raise but I don't want to appear like a debby-downer: some French puns were actually very funny. If you don't know/speak French, I urge you to translate them. Also, I actually liked Lou's rowdiness which was very refreshing and funny (Ansel being shocked by her song had me laughing out loud).

Now, onto the good (or bad) stuff.

There are several issues with this book, issues that other people might explain better than I would ever be able to explain but, if I had to identify the two points that bothered me the most, it would be the following:

1/ This is a 500-page long book with little to no evolution.

Hear me out. You are told at the very beginning that the story is set in a fantastical french alternative universe because of the use of french words and names (Louise being the single most popular name for girls in France) and then... that's it. No world-building is used beyond the use of occasional French, there is little to be said on the subject of world-building in general but you had so much to base yourself on when it comes to 16th century France... And none of it shines through. You are told this is a ennemy to lover story and, yeah, the book beggins with them being ennemies and end with them being lovers but that through no fault of their own as the characters litteraly never fall in love. Reid goes from "she is annoying" to "she is my wife/little heathen" within chapters and... that's it. No development, little to no moments that make you root for them/believe that they are actually in love (or, if those moments exist, they come in too late into the story).

Finally, and that may be the worst part of the book,

Reid doesn't change throughout the book. The thing is, when it comes to modern books about witches, we tend to know who to root for: the witch that doesn't have warts/ turn other people into frogs. In our modern day and age, the good side tends to be the group of women who have been discriminated against/burned in the past. Well, you wouldn't get that from the lack of evolution in Reid's belief. I would argue that Reid doesn't learn to love witches, or even accept then, there is no hint pointing in that direction (his feelings towards his clearly prejudicial mentor do not even seem to evolve) throughout the book, even after he learns the truth about his wife and it bothered me. so. much. Like, you'd expect him to think "well, I love my wife and she is a witch, so maybe some withces are okay?", right? Well, no. It doesn't happen. Reid learns that his wife is a witch and that's it. He is just going to save her without questionning any of his beliefs even though they could be detrimental to his wife.

2/ Which leads us to 2/ : why, exactly, is Lou the one to change point of view?

Louise tells people, times and times again, that Hunters might not be that terrible in the book and realizes that some things about her coven aren't perfect and, yeah, that may be a good point to make when it comes to warring sides and the ever present theme of duality but it should always be secondary to Reid and other characters realizing that the brutal murdering of women and girls who are, for the most part, innocent is wrong, terrible and crual, a point that Reid doesn't seem to question.

The thing is, the conflict in the book is heavily influenced by the historic damages caused by Christianity and its systematic oppression towards suffering minorities so having the "minority character" (Lou) questionning herself while the Catholic white man (Reid) doesn't just feels... Bad ™.

Content Warnings

mythical_molly's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

5.0

This is the book that got me back into reading. It is a beautiful star-crossed slow-burn enemies-to-lovers love story. The relationship is so well written that at some point in the book, you're probably going to sit back for a second and think "hey wait when did they develop feelings for each other?" but it feels so natural and so right that it just fits, and I think that's a testament to how well-written the slow burn is. All in all, this is a fantastic story with twists and turns that will always keep you guessing. Could not recommend it enough.

Content Warnings

kokorobosoina's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional medium-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? Yes

2.0

Content Warnings

ana24gs's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book may seem like it was written for ten-year-old’s, maybe the way the main plot begins is ridiculous, maybe the characters speak like nine-year-old’s, and maybe the characters are not very original in the fantasy world, but all that doesn't matter because I found the book to be verry entertaining.

I needed to read an enemies to lovers romance with a fantasy subplot, and I got it by reading this book. I wasn't expecting the super plot, I wasn't expecting deep characters, I wasn't expecting a complex world, I needed something easy to read and I got it. This actually was a really funny experience; I couldn't stop reading it.

But I suggest being prepared for how ridiculous it can be at moments, MANY MOMENTS. I can only prepare you for this with this quote, DIRECT FROM THE BOOK: “Big Titty Liddy was not very pretty, but her bosom was big as a barn. Her creamery knockers drove men off their rockers, but she was blind to their charms…”.

Speaking of this, I feel that because of the dialogues and how immature the characters were, you expect it to be a book for teenagers, teenagers from eleven to fourteen years old, but because of the serious topics they touch, such as prostitution, sexism, murder, witch hunt, an explicit sex scene, deformation, neglect of minors, religious extremism, self-flagellation in order to perform magic, and I don't know what else, you'd expect it to be a book for an adult audience.

Despite this, you may like it if you know what you're getting into, a romance of enemies to lovers that unfolds as you expect, with a fantasy plot that also unfolds as one expects it to unfold.

☢️ SPOILERS ☢️:

Okey, as I said the characters are very bland, we have seen them a thousand times in a thousand books with similar themes. But still, I am going to talk about them.

Lou: She is a girl who is not like other girls, because she thinks for herself and is super open with her sexuality, that is fine, it does not bother me, but it is nothing new, so it does not impress me. She is brave, strong, sarcastic, funny, kind, nothing I have not read before. She has the worst mother in the world and an interesting witch power. I take this as an opportunity to say that I like the magic system of this book, I like that there are limitations when using them because it creates tension in the reader, you know that the actions that the main characters carry out come with consequences.

Reid: The author does something with Reid that I liked. Reid is a super religious boy, extremely religious, and hates witches. But that's not what interests me about his character, he develops as anyone expects. What interests me about his character are his anger issues. It is very common to see extremely violent male protagonists, but it is never presented as something dangerous. In this book it is very clear that Reid has anger issues, he is aware of it, he is aware that it is not normal to feel so much anger and so much desire to strangle people and, although it is difficult for him, he is able to control himself. BECAUSE HE KNOWS IT'S NOT NORMAL, AND IT'S NOT OKEY TO BE SO VIOLENT AND HAVE SO MUCH ANGER. It’s shown how it should be shown, a mental health problem that can be managed with good control techniques (and I think medicine, but at that time that does not exist).

Coco: Cosette, she's here because I really liked her.

Anzel: My only opinion is that he's cute, I'm not even going to deny it. He is immature, yes, but it is understood because of his religion.

Labelle: I really liked this woman, super smart, she doesn't bite her tongue, she speaks her mind, and I'm very curious to see how she will handle her relationship with Reid now that he knows that she is his mother.

Lou's mother: The worst mother in the world.

Fangirl moment, let's talk about romance:

I LOVED THE ROMANCE GDABCSDJNLFKD, I walked in for an enemies to lovers romance and this book did not disappoint, from their banter with each other, to the moments where they cared for each other and got jealous. THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO SEE. I don't care that Lou makes fun of everything Reid does and at times I have a hard time understanding why he, in the end, falls in love with her, and that Reid does the bear minimum that any good husband can do (not hit her), their scenes together are super cute and I super love them together because they really care about each other and understand each other. It broke my heart when Reid found out that Lou was a witch and told her that she was no longer his wife AUCH, it hurt a lot. But now they are fine, and I hope they continue to be.

Content Warnings

More...