Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

13 reviews

lilbookbee's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Wow. What can I even say about this book?

I spent much of this book absolutely baffled by what was going on. Maeve was a fascinating character, whose actions left me with question after question. Everybody in this book is terrible in their own way, and I think that's part of the appeal.

When the book concluded, I felt myself trying to puzzle out *why* everything had happened. There was so much brutality, so much violence, and I wondered if it crossed the line into gratuitous. But, the longer I pondered the point, the more I realized *that was the point*. Early on, Maeve talks about how men don't have to have reasons for the horrible things they do, but they always question why women do horrible things. I think I fought with the urge to do the same, to try to make sense of it all. But her violence and lack of reason behind it, that was all that mattered. We didn't need any answers beyond that.

Now, Gideon. The romance reader in me desperately wanted this strange little hockey romance to turn into murder spouses. I mean, cmon, it could've been so fun.  But I don't think it would've made sense for Maeve's story. Maeve's entire arc was about feeling alone and hiding who she was, which by the end she seemed more able to embrace both the loneliness and her inner "wolf". She was, arguably, finally free at the end, but at great cost. 

I think that, overall, this book was worth reading. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook (shout-out to a great narrator) and I really did tear through this book wanting to hear more. Do I think it was profound? Well, no. Do I think I'll recommend it or ever read it again? Probably not. But I'm happy I did read it, and it was enough to warrant me picking up this author's other book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, and Torture

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Grief

whatkatyread87's review

dark funny informative tense fast-paced

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

4.0

It’s almost as if someone looked at Patrick Bateman, and then said “Hold my Fucking Beer”. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

disguisedposer's review

dark emotional mysterious fast-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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

This was a pretty fun weird girl book, with some great classic horror references and a unique storyline. 

I personally wouldn’t describe it as ‘feminist horror’ like i’ve seen it described by other reviewers. Maeve is absolutely not a feminist character, she’s actually quite actively misogynistic at times and SAs a lot of her victims, so I think it’s very misleading to describe this book that way.

But apart from the misleading descriptions, i did enjoy this book. It was pretty campy at times, and very gory, and even though i think more could have been done with the gore and actual horror scenes, this is a pretty solid story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bwoo's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug use, and Cannibalism

Minor: Abortion

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

This is a well-written and interesting story with a unique and somewhat unbalanced protagonist with feminist-leaning sensibilities. While the flow of the storyline is pretty tight, at times it felt a little slow to me, but around 60-70% it became quite engaging.

The bottom line is that I don’t care for body horror or sexual content, especially when they’re combined. Even though the body horror and sexual content in this book are relatively mild and the author doesn’t go into a lot of detail, it was still, personally, more than I want to read. With that said, it works for the main character, Maeve Fly, and the story, just not for this reader.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Sosie Bacon. The personality and vocal inflections Ms. Bacon brought to all the characters fit perfectly, but I thought the huskiness of her voice took a little getting used to at the start.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Torture

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gore

atmissv's review against another edition

fast-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? Yes

4.5

I loved this book, but it is DARK! I read a review that compared it with American Psycho, and that is an apt comparison - though this one has more moments of (dark dark pitch black) humor.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

recklessric's review

dark tense medium-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

3.0

Just going to wrap all this in a spoiler tag since I'm not 100% sure how that works. This book starts out feverish in the best way before a bit of a mid book lull and then and end that does a pretty good job of misdirection before the twist. This issue for me, though was that the twist comes so late that it makes the last 1/3 of the book a bit of a chore because it feels like it's heading for something cliched and obvious so I like the ending but didn't enjoy getting there. Also I think this book contradicts itself a lot in terms of its philosophy and the philosophy of the characters which was ultimately a bit of a let down. I think it strives to be something more than shock value slasher fare and that's admirable but ultimately that's all this is to me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

josie_reads_books's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

What a deeply disturbing and fantastic book.

Have was such an unhinged character but I somehow rooted for her and was utterly devastated by the ending.

There was a humorous yet strange scene that was definitely an ode to Patrick Batemen watching himself having sex.

This was such a captivating story. It was like a train wreck - I just couldn't look away. Every time I put the book down, it was all I could think about.

It had me physically cringing in disgust and shouting out in disturbance and I loved every moment of it.

This is going to stick with me for a very long time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail