Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Maeve Fly by C.J. Leede

28 reviews

macncheese_pdf's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Gore, Mental illness, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, and Torture

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Body horror

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

Minor: Gore

hauntedantiqueshop's review

dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

Hey, quick question— what the fuck was this?

Oddly enough, I did kind of like it though. Not the gross shit but the overall story I suppose. The ending made me a little sad for Maeve but I didn’t really expect a happy ending for her. Definitely not a book for everyone, I don’t think there’s anyone I would ever recommend it to. But I am interested in reading something from this author again!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Death, Body horror, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Excrement

Really weird sex stuff. Like uncomfortably weird sex stuff.

mxpringle's review

dark medium-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

4.25

This is probably one of the most depraved and bizarre books I've ever read, which is definitely saying something. I feel like I could've used more background as to how the events that happened in Maeve's life or thoughts she had led her to doing certain actions in the book, because a lot of the actions she did just seemed so off the rails that I couldn't see any human reasoning behind it anymore. It kind of felt like the things she did were just like trying to get a reaction out of the reader rather than being authentic character development. However, this was still overall a really interesting/enjoyable read (though very dark and depraved). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Mental illness, Rape, Medical content, Blood, Gore, Murder, Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Pregnancy, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Minor: Toxic relationship and Pregnancy

grey_jayne's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

I really wanted to love this book but it first directly references American Psycho and Fight Club before riffing on their styles and I found this jarring. Also, this is a book much more about relationships than slashing. It was okay, it was fine, but I wasn't wowed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, Bullying, and Death of parent

racheltheripper's review

dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Drug use and Cannibalism

albernikolauras's review

dark funny 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

3.5

An utterly disgusting book following a grossly unlikeable main character who works as a Disney princess in (what I assume is) California Adventure. This book was one of those "it's a trainwreck but I can't look away" where Maeve is the trainwreck. Cue the body horror in so many indulgently gross ways. I enjoyed this in a very uncomfortable way and just because, in some ways, I think Maeve and the city of Los Angeles were well-portrayed - even if they were unbearable at times.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending. It felt like a complete severing of the tension building throughout the novel. Overall, though, I feel like some of the scenes from this will haunt me - which is exactly what I would want from this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Torture, and Grief

Details on some of the content warnings -

Very graphic scenes of torture, of sexualization of torture, of cutting up bodies or sticking hamsters in orifices. Of doxing people's information. Just a lot.

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.

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Content Warnings

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

natahoochie's review

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

WTF. Horrifying. Brutal. Incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Drug use, Stalking, Gore, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Body horror, Blood, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Murder, Death, Child death, Bullying, Rape, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Pedophilia and Vomit

Minor: Abortion

arcillaf's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Violence, Cancer, Blood, Murder, Rape, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content