Reviews tagging 'Violence'

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson

20 reviews

hayleepescod's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Death, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, War, and Medical content

gilroi's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 Ultimately, this horror / dystopia / alt history severely pulls its punches with regard to the ending. It's barely spooky, barely horrific, and so light on the dystopian and alt-historical detail that the whole thing feels unsatisfying. The use of end notes to render unreliability and worldbuilding is pretty interesting, however.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Abandonment, War, and Child death

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Starvation, family separation, child separation, prison abuse, fascism

danielnski's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The story itself is excellent, but the way the book layers in a historiographical element really adds to the mystery of the core plot and the unreliable narration. While I don't know if all the plot points are the most relevant, I couldn't put this book down and I can't shake the book and how brilliant it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Abandonment, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

hahanimation's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

One to reread and reconsider everything again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, War, and Toxic friendship

ru_th's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Everything is irrelevant. 
Everything is important. 
Everything is important, until it is irrelevant. 
Breathe in. Breathe out. Until you cannot. 
Memory is malleable. History is mutable. All I can do is try to make sure my story isn’t lost. I have saved what I can, so you will understand what we have become. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Body horror, War, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Violence, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Death, Homophobia, Murder, Grief, Mental illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Torture

liter_aly's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Gore, and Violence

quinnjuliac's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Confinement, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Psychological torture

librarymouse's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective fast-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

5.0

I've found that I love the niche of nonfiction/memoirs written about a fictional world and fictional people. I really loved this book. Cranor and Matthewson have a talent for describing a character's descent into into madness/paranoia/a conspiracy as a reasonable, understandable, and extended progression. They way they build suspense is very much like the frog and boiling water metaphor, and they pull you right alongside the characters. Miriam feels like a friend, and I desperately want more information about the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Genocide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Cancer

jendif's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Violence and War

leahjanespeare's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

In the vein of World War Z, this is a chilling fictional autobiography of an apocalyptic future - hardcore horror scenarios, as these apocalypses tend to be. The autobiography we are reading is from that of a Dr. Miriam Gregory who survived the collapse -- and remaking of, the world as everyone knew it. She specialised in child psychology and skirted the metaphysical with never before seen tactics for erasing trauma. What could be better and more successful than a new world without trauma? Nothing can go wrong here! Muahahaha.

But as Miriam's stories get wackier and possible conspiracies are uncovered, footnotes slowly undermine her claims. Footnotes from a new society claiming anti-censorship, and defending the new government and anything they may or may not have done in the realm of human experimentation. Conveniently, any records beyond Miriam's memoir cannot be found. BUT honestly, I trusted neither Miriam's account nor the footnote auditor - both were fantastically unreliable and left me totally unsettled by the end. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence