Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

27 reviews

tim_townes's review against another edition

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

4.5

You better strap in, because this is a truly wild ride. While other authors get the worldbuilding out of the way early, China Miévielle just does. not. stop.

Very minor spoiler to give you an idea:

Halfway through the book, the ambassador of literal hell just casually pops up. And that's just the setup for an even wilder concept.

And I'm all for it. Coupled with a tense thriller plot and a vivid, imaginative cityscape, Perdido Street Station entrances you with its colorful imagery (ha! You'll get the joke once you've read it.) and doesn't let go until the end. If you're willing to roll with the more outlandish concepts, I highly recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Rape and Torture

bennyfelds's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Torture

rartastic's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

This review sums up my feelings pretty well: https://ucsdguardian.org/2015/04/01/fully-booked-china-mievilles-perdido-street-station/

Also a quote from someone else that he tries to give us too much breadth in the book, so he ends up twisting characters into things they wouldn’t normally do. 

I got tired of how gross and dark the city was. There was some deus ex machina toward the end that I found annoying. 

It felt like it was trying to be a new Ankh Morpork/Discworld. But it was way darker and worse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Torture, Self harm, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Rape, and Drug use

foxmulders's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.25

oy vey… this came highly rated and recommended by sff audiences but this was an utter miss for me. i think i would have enjoyed this if we spent more time on the interpersonal lives of lin and isaac and yag. the slake-moth stuff felt like a 400+ page slog through a monster of the week tv show filler episode. the initial story - about forbidden love and an outsider seeking to regain flight - had promise but falls apart entirely in the end chapters. overall disappointing. the treatment of lin in particular felt pointless and unnecessary in its cruelty. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Violence

Moderate: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Rape, and Drug abuse

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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 is an extraordinary book. I was bowled over when I read it twenty years ago, and it is just as powerful now. It’s about racism and loyalty and a repressive state, and about the resilience of those who are affected. I can’t recommend it highly enough - it’s phenomenal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Mental illness, Blood, Gore, Addiction, Classism, Violence, Drug abuse, Body horror, Torture, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Death, and Excrement

arken_rose's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Police brutality, and Cursing

Minor: Animal cruelty and Child abuse

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

3.5

This book definitely shows its age in some areas (at one point the author uses the word "autistic" in such a strange way that I still have no idea what he was trying to indicate, the plotline that pops up near the end and then immediately peters out also feels very dated) but overall I enjoyed this. The world felt original and the stakes always felt high. The characters were kind of awful but in a way that felt like it was on purpose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Addiction, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Slavery, Xenophobia, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Child abuse, Confinement, Dementia, Drug use, Rape, Classism, Gore, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Abortion, Pedophilia, Vomit, War, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

allegedmusician's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Torture

kaseyd's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Body horror, Drug use, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Abortion and Vomit

woweewhoa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This is a book that tries to do a lot, and does most of it very well! It's a very vivid world, in the best and worst ways, as it's very clear that this is a place with a history and politics as complex as they can be anywhere in the world. 
This book also revels in descriptions of the disgusting and there are Several parts of this book that you read a description and go "Ah! That's it for today!" There's a horror in this book, not in the tension or 'jump scare' sense, but in just the vivid descriptions and how extreme some of them get. 

I did overall like this book, however I guess because of everything that piled up and needed payoff, it resolved in a way I didn't particularly care for? It became much more of a 'Monster Hunting' plot once the Slake Moths became the big bad, which isn't a bad thing! It just shoved some of the political ramifications that were being touched upon to the side slightly, and I think I wanted that to be more of the focus I guess! My feelings on the book I think come from what I was looking for more than anything else all said! Also don't really like how the Lin stuff ended up going, especially when she was gone for most of the back half of the book.

I think all my problems with the book stem from what I'm looking for personally, so if you can handle really rough subject matter that honestly does make you feel Bad from how visceral it is, try this book out!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, Gore, Blood, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Violence, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Racism, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Infertility, and Incest