Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Walking Practice by Dolki Min

39 reviews

sleepycaboose's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

readingsofaslinky's review

funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Holy bodily hell!! This book is not in fact like squid games unless you are imaging a giant gender less squid playing games with humanity. Yeah, that’s not what you thought, huh? I’d say this gave me more Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl meets Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground meets Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons. Weird, queer, explicit, and thought provoking; I’m glad I was recommended to read this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Dysphoria, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Body shaming, Excrement, and Sexual content

Minor: Fatphobia

wasabiapple's review

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Violence, Homophobia, Body horror, Body shaming, and Sexual content

readingwithcoffee's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.5

The ideas are vastly better then the execution especially prose wise but it’s honestly a lot of fun and very refreshing read it also very crude and explicit in both what it’s using a thin veil of scifi to talk about while being pretty explicit about gender and gender and sexuality as performance. 

I felt like there was a conversation about lookism in South Korea that’s incredibly intense but really hard to get if you’re a foreigner (even if you’re familiar with desirability politics) that never fully felt really used well but that and the conversation about cameras and unseen cameras taking photos that was definitely a references to spy camera sexual violence in South Korea and Japan felt kinda refreshing to be the core point of the book or just sat and explained versus a part of the life the alien was going through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Stalking, Excrement, Body shaming, Gore, Vomit, Body horror, Cannibalism, Violence, and Abandonment

foolishyetdangerousbooks's review

challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Cannibalism, Body horror, Hate crime, Murder, Blood, Death, and Excrement

scifi_rat's review

emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, and Cursing

Minor: Blood and Cannibalism

quirkykayleetam's review

challenging dark emotional reflective

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

4.5

This is not a book for most people.

It is violent and sexual and strange, inviting you to listen to a people-eating alien tell you their most intimate thoughts and actions while hiding and surviving on planet earth.

The experience should be alienating--and sometimes it is.  Sometimes you have to reckon with the fact that you're talking to someone with 3 legs and almost 30 genitals who is unapologetic about who they are.  But I also found myself connecting so closely with the narrator.  They embodied so much of my fear and anger as an invisibly disabled person trying to live in a world where my physical body will always hold me down.

The end of this novella is sudden.  It made me think and think and rethink.

This book shows you the monstrous in yourself and how you have been a monster to others.  If you can handle the content, this is one I highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Murder, Dysphoria, Violence, Body horror, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Stalking, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

ra22ouille's review

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Wowow what a visceral exploration of queerness, ability, sex, gender, and monstrosity. Dolki Min crafted a horrific, disgusting alien that is also tender, beautiful, sexy, emotional, and made me feel such empathy and kindness towards the character. I really loved the limited first person POV and the depth of emotion that the text was able to probe with that perspective. The character was so complex and being in it's head was profound. It not only showed me how they were alienated in our world, but it also alienated me from the society I am home to. The kinship I felt with the alien forced me further outside of humanity and I pondered questions of homogeneity, queer and disabled assimilation, and solopsism in a world where you not only feel alone but are truly alone. Or, at least when you believe that you can only possibly be alone, until perhaps you aren't. How does that challenge your solitude, the solipsistic beliefs that propel your choices and your interior lofe? Truly, truly spectacular. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Blood, Sexual content, Body horror, and Violence

shannanigans's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Excrement

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

buying this in print both because it was lovely and because my ereader did not do the art justice! 

wow! what can i say. such a fresh premise, the narrative voice was so refreshing, i don’t think I’ve ever read a book anything like this. if you have, PLEASE recommend! favorite book this year i think

unapologetically queer and making very interesting points about who this world is designed for both physically and in a more abstract sense. definitely graphic and gory but that takes a surprising backseat to the emotions of the main char. idk this book was just great and a lovely opener for Halloween month.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cannibalism, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Gore, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Vomit, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Death, Ableism, Cursing, Excrement, Transphobia, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism