Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Maeve Fly

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

arcillaf's review

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dark funny lighthearted 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

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rachelunabridged's review

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dark medium-paced

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

3.25

i am so conflicted about this book! on one hand, i really liked the exploration of this absolutely depraved character, but would i recommend this book to anyone, NO. because i don't want to be responsible for any mental scarring. y'all, i have seen things.

tbh, i had a hard time getting into this one at first because the beginning was just kinda meh. once it got good and started though, i found myself morbidly curious about how it was going to play out. i don't read a lot of extreme horror so i had a few "well that's enough of this book for today :)" moments. it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

i've been going back and forth about it for a few days now and settled on 3 stars, dropped from a possible 4. for one thing, this book heavily depends on the reader being familiar with american psycho (which i've never read, but know the broad strokes of), and i'm just not very impressed when an author uses a better known work as a springboard for their own. anything can serve as inspiration, but i felt like it was overplayed in this particular book.

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fadeddpages's review

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dark sad medium-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

4.5

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vixenreader's review

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dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Despite some over-indulgence on nihilism, this book is fun, bone-chilling, and surprisingly poignant, especially with the protagonist’s attempts at latching onto the people she cherishes the most.

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micah_thelibrarian's review

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adventurous dark mysterious 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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fangirljeanne's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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

I don’t know what it says about me that I was sad that this didn’t have a happy ending, but it is what it is.

This is a great horror novel, beautifully grotesque and emotionally raw to an uncomfortable degree. It’s very much more lit fic than in tone and execution than horror or splatter punk, though it absolutely holds its own in both genres. The experience of being a woman, especially one who doesn’t fit the unattainable hypocrisy of socially acceptable feminine ideals, is a horrific mind-bending experience.

Maeve is not unique in her weird or messiness, take out the overt violence and this would be like many other women’s lit narrative about the trauma of living under patriarchy. But here, in the framing of a horror novel this narrative feels more authentic, more autonomous compared to the passive victimhood of a lot of white women’s navel gazing fiction, at least until the end. Maeve felt like she was going to give the cliche narrative of the weird girl, the creepy girl, the femme fatale a newer better ending. One where she embraces that aspects of herself that fear of society tells her to suppress and hate. While she escapes the typical fate of “fallen women” of literature, she is still punished for refusing to conform to society. That’s the only aspect of the story I disliked. It felt like a step back after so many subversive strides forward.

I get it, this is a horror novel. Heartbreak is an important aspect of that genre. But I would also argue that few things are quite as frightening to patriarchy as a villainous woman getting everything she wants including love and acceptance.

Highly recommended to fans of graphic horror and dark humor. If you love the movie May (2002) this book might be for you too.

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