Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Maeve Fly

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Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

still_percy22's review

challenging 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

2.5

This book was well written but the MC was so annoying with her weird victim complex that it wasn’t a very enjoyable read. Just fast!

Content Warnings

audsquad's review

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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

Content Warnings

alukalani's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.5

I enjoyed this budding serial killer story. It definitely gives American Psycho vibes.

Content Warnings

baileybeloved's review

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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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hoot957's review

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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

3.5

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emilycox96's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

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lspain_eddington's review

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dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This was…something. I should start by saying I normally don’t read horror, and it normally is very much not my genre. But I decided to read this because it was billed a feminist American Psycho and I do enjoy suspense. And it is spooky season, so I thought, “Why not?”

Maeve is certainly an antihero main character and I enjoyed her strangeness. She is funny in that she is sarcastic and crass and doesn’t really care what anyone thinks of her. I liked the *idea* that a woman could be unhinged and that she didn’t need to go through any specific trauma to be psychotic. But I don’t think that makes this book feminist (more on that later). The whole of the novel is a character study of Maeve and her psychoses and the people around her that “see” her. I thought this aspect of the story was interesting and honestly probably would’ve loved just to hear her inner dialogue sans the gore/sexual content.

All that said, it seemed like the book was shocking, gory, and graphic only for the sake of being shocking, gory, and graphic. I don’t think the gore or the graphic sexual content really added anything to the story other than shock value—which if that WAS the goal, it certainly accomplished that. But I’m also not leaving this book feeling like this accomplished anything feminist for me. It seemed that this book assumes a sort of post-feminism about society, but I could see a world in which someone (probably a man—sorry dudes) reads this and says, “yeah, the ladies are crazy.” I’d be curious to hear a different take on this, but to me it just felt like a misrepresentation of feminism as a movement, and the message got lost in the graphic-ness of everything else.

3 stars because I didn’t hate it, but probably not one I will be recommending to folks unless they’re into weird, gory stuff.

Content warnings: lots of gore and graphic sexual violence/sexual content

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rowan27's review

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

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emilyyjjean's review

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dark tense fast-paced

5.0

Wow, just wow. I just don't know how to articulate my thoughts right now after reading this. I loved it, but also I'm thinking "WTF did I just read?!". It's teetering on extreme horror, and won't be for everyone. Definitely take a look at content warnings before starting. If you're someone that can stomach a lot of things and you love horror, I'd say give this book a try though.

Content Warnings