Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Audition by Ryū Murakami

28 reviews

kamurphy919's review

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Torture, and Death

montyroz's review

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Stalking, Torture, and Violence

soobooksalot's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Blood, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Cancer, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, and Alcohol

owlribbon's review

dark tense

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Gore

Moderate: Infidelity, Grief, and Death

doomluz's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I love the film based on this book and the plot felt almost the same from what I can remember of the film. The book still has the sort of surreal/dreamy feeling as the movie though it goes into more detail on a few things.

Somehow the book felt more gruesome at the climax than I remember the film being. I remember the dog died in the film, but in the book Asami tortures it before it dies.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Body horror, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, and Sexual content

mariafernanda993's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Really hateable characters, but still couldn't put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Torture

gasolinecupcake's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I think the movie does the storyline more justice. But the book is still a great read. 
The movie is my favorite movie of all time so maybe I'm a bit biased

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Body horror, Pedophilia, Torture, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, and Gore

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

-An animal dies -There is a whole chapter which is dedicated to sex that the characters have. It's pretty descriptive

terroraaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Sexual content, Violence, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Sexual assault, and Animal death

ande13's review

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I’m always wary of foreign books translated into English because there’s so many things that could go wrong - a lack of understanding of one of the languages that results in flat writing, a lack of cultural understanding that results in a confusing story line, over explanation to try and avoid any potential misunderstandings, etc. but I’ve always heard such good things about Audition that I decided to give it a shot.

It wasn’t exactly the story I thought it would be. It was very slow in the beginning, but built up nicely. I wish they would have spent a little less time building to the climax, and I wanted there to be more wrap up at the end, but I enjoyed the overall plot. It was such a short book that the author definitely could have added more aftermath it to wrap things up better and it still wouldn’t have felt too long.

The only thing that seemed out of place was all the American pop culture references. It may have been what the author actually wrote, but it felt more like the translator was trying to make sports etc. more digestible for the English reader’s palette versus just keeping the original content. To me, it felt like a weird mashup you see in older anime where the English cast says something like, “gee, these cookies sure are great!” When the person is clearly eating rice balls. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse

cviii's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

2.25

i think this might be the worst book i’ve ever read. the only reason i didn’t rate it lower is that i can imagine ways it could have been worse. also there were a few bits of prose that i liked. 

the antagonist had potential to be interesting and complex but she isn’t, she’s predictable and her motivations are explained via exposition from the narration. side characters hint at ways she might be more interesting (suggesting she’s lying about her background, describing her almost as if she’s a supernatural entity), but in the end she comes across like a very tired cliche. 

the protagonist is also pretty boring. he’s not exactly likeable (going along with a plan to trick young, aspiring actresses into thinking they’re auditioning for a movie when they’re really auditioning to be the protagonist’s future wife is pretty messed up) but he does have some decent qualities. not really enough to make me concerned with whether he’ll live to see the end of the novel but enough to keep me from actively rooting for him to die. 

the writing style didn’t work for me for the most part, aside from a couple lines of prose, as mentioned above. a lot of the book comes across as exposition which i didn’t enjoy much. i’m not sure how much of my issues with the writing can be explained by nuance getting lost in translation so i don’t hold this against the book too much. 

one thing i’ll give the book credit for is that it can easily be read in one sitting, maybe two, so you’re not investing much effort in reading it only to be let down in the end. i wouldn’t recommend reading it but you won’t lose much by giving it a couple hours of your day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, and Physical abuse