Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Layla by Colleen Hoover

6 reviews

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Not my favorite of Hoover’s by far, this novel was just okay for me mainly because of how unbelievable the plot was. Hoover even writes characters who can’t believe the plot so I don’t know how the reader was expected to. I felt like Leeds was kind of an unredeemable character in that he validates his behavior against Layla by using information he didn’t have before he did the thing. This makes me uncomfortable because the thing was still wrong because he didn’t have all the pertinent information when he did it. I did like how intense the writing was — it made you want to get to the end to know what was happening — but I wouldn’t want to read this for the first time again, like I’ve wanted to with Hoover’s other novels. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, and Gun violence

sierranorgan's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No

3.0

What on earth did I just read?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, and Stalking

marisacarpico's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Funny that Hoover is most known for straightforward romances and I’ve only read her weird genre experiments. That said, this is pretty strong. I kind of wish it didn’t sacrifice the more difficult route of using Leeds to explore misogyny and the fickleness of some men for the big romantic gesture, but I mostly found it really compelling.

I will say, Hoover really overwrites her characters’ emotional beats. So many sentiments felt repeated to death and his whole book could easily be 20-30 pages shorter and a lot more thrilling. The middle section, where this is just emotional manipulation and gaslighting is tough to read and not having to sit with it so long might make this more emotionally resonant overall. Hoover writes herself out of the corner she puts the characters into, but just barely. This concept might be easier to swallow as a film, honestly. We just have to suspend our disbelief and struggle to keep our sympathy with Leeds for too long in book form. I genuinely considered DNF’ing this for a minute.

The time jumping really felt affected for so much of the book and it ends at a key turn, but you can feel the construction in a way I didn’t like. Also, it’s too hard to believe a choice the characters make re: a visit from some guests in the last act. There’s a reason for it, but it’s just one step too far in asking us to believe theses characters aren’t dumb as fuck. Also, really stupid to ask us to believe Leeds is so curious about Willow yet never takes 5 minutes to see if anyone died in the house or to do some research into why the previous owners suddenly abandoned it. Hoover might be too big to get hard edits at this point, but her editor is asleep at the wheel if they’re just letting shit like that slip by.

Anyway, I seem really critical on this, but it’s got enough that works about it that I don’t think the flaws totally ruin the experience. It’s no Verity, but I do have to appreciate what Hoover was trying to do even if she doesn’t do it particularly well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Blood and Body horror

missbsbookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Body horror, and Death

cbbyles07's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Gun violence, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Physical abuse

toofondofbooks_'s review

dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I'm gonna need at least 200 more of these thriller/supernatural books from Colleen Hoover, because this knocked me on my ass almost as much as Verity. I didn't even know what this book was half the time, but I knew that it was really hard to detach myself from my kindle because I just wanted to know what happened and what it was all leading up to. It didn't disappoint me, I'm happy to report. However, I wanted to push the main character, Leeds, off of the nearest cliff. Have I ever hated a male protagonist more? I don't think so. I feel like that was almost the goal of the narrative, though. If it was, congrats Ms. Hoover, you win at writing insufferable men 😂 i don't even know what to do with myself after this one. I already cried, now what?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Gun violence, Violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, and Body horror

Moderate: Drug use, Stalking, and Self harm