Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

137 reviews

mercuryretrobae's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cmenasian24's review against another edition

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

glitchgh0st's review

dark 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? Yes

2.25

Felt like it tried way too hard to be edgy, and the ending was a huge letdown, in that I didn't like what it had to say, and it was contrived. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Drug use

baileylayish's review

dark tense 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Grief, and Murder

foxfic's review

dark sad 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

4.0

This book broke my heart. It reads a bit like Holden Caulfield narrating American Psycho, but with queer overtones and feminine rage. We follow Maeve as her carefully managed life starts to go completely off the rails, and she cuts an impulsive, bloody path towards true self discovery. This book teeters right on the edge of genre, dipping its toes into splatterpunk when describing gore and torture. I’d recommend it for a quick, visceral read that’ll absolutely hurt your feelings by the end. 4/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Torture, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual assault

ashrc's review

dark sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, and Sexual assault

clovetra's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

to think i put off reading this so many times, and wasn’t going to read it at all. thank you universe for having me read this because my GOD was this stellar.

i cannot describe just how much of a good time i had with this.

• the ambiguous references to disney????? SOLD. especially in that final scene with liz, i literally burst out laughing oh my god
• the bus scene too??? holy shit??!?
• the gore in this book in general!!!! oh my god was it spectacular. i think this is my favourite book in terms of how the gore was written because my god. it teeters the line between unrealistic and entertaining so well
• maeve herself. insane. witty. somehow relatable. i love her.
• gideon too. he is amazing, i love him, i want to be him, i want to be maeve with him. Yeah.
• there was no plot to this book and i didn’t care. maeve captured my attention so well i didn’t care at one point i was just following her life. 
• the writing. is so. good. oh my god.
• the ending????? i started crying. i started crying at the ending because i loved this book so much holy shit

if you love horror, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS. i don’t even think i have the words to describe why i adored this so much oh my GODDDDDDDD.

anyways, ill never be able to watch frozen with my niece again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide and Medical content

khradil's review

dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual assault, and Murder

audsquad's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, and Blood

baileybeloved's review

dark 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? Yes

3.5

Things I loved about this book: extended metaphors, Maeve's all-consuming possessiveness, and the absurdity of being a Disney princess / killer. CJ Leede does not shy away from or minimize the dark nature of Maeve and I respect that a lot. 
Leede is also great at detailed scenes and places which really transport you. Gore/body horror were definitely there, but some things glossed over enough that even I (new to the body horror subgenre) was okay with reading it. Suspense was definitely there - I felt genuinely nervous reading this. Ending was exactly what it was going to be, with who Maeve is. I was disappointed by and for her, but it never could have ended any other way.

Things I didn't love about this book: 
-the pacing!!! I felt like the first 60-70% were just slow meanders through Maeve's head, with no real plot or character development or an occurring - either make the book longer or make things happen faster. The back of the book talks about her following Patrick Bateman but that is such a small short part of the story that I felt the selling premise was not an accurate reflection of the book's contents. 
-the egg subplot/kink (but not for the reason you think). My issue with the egg thing is that it just seemed very heavy handed (lol) for the metaphor the author was trying to convey. On one hand, I get it - Maeve's constant struggle is eased when she finds someone who can help her, who does not judge her interests but instead assists with them, that Maeve is all or nothing so she never considered anything in the middle ground. But on the other hand.... really? She has been

attempting to put an egg in her ass for YEARS and never considered a temperature between hard boiled and raw?????? How many eggs has she wasted on this??

. This is probably also a commentary on the single-minded pursuit of her goals, how inflexible she is, how everything must go exactly as she imagines it, that she needs a companion to ..... soften ? .... her ridged nature. But I was just so annoyed by this for some reason. 
-the answer about the dolls:

It seemed so obvious to me that  Gideon was making the dolls. I did not for one second consider or buy that it was some random girl making them

. The writing seemed to say we should be shocked by this but I was not surprised at all.

Other: A lot of the really positive reviews are audiobook specific so maybe I would've liked it more if I would have listened to it. Also I ADORE the other cover, with Maeve in the princess dress holding an eye.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Alcohol