Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Maeve Fly

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

jamie_rich's review

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

Truly depraved....

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jctur2's review

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dark funny 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

If a Disney princess was the main character in American Psycho.

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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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squids_can_read's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Please look up content/trigger warnings.

Maeve Fly works as a princess at a theme park. She loves her life as it is but when her grandmother gets sick and her best friend gets a big break in her acting career. Now Maeve Fly's life is crumbling around her.

How can a book this disturbing make me want to sob like a little baby? I think that a very specific set of people will really enjoy this book and I think that most people will not. The main character is not a good person, she does things and says things that are fundamentally wrong. But I honestly really enjoyed that. It's gross and it's disgusting but it discusses a lot about codependent relationships, finding your true self, and having someone know you truly. Overall, I thought that the characters were really interesting and the plot was super intriguing.

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Deliciously unsettling and dark! It reminded me of Boy Parts, which I loved, so that immediately got me on board. Maeve’s voice was compelling and fun to read, if sometimes a little over the top. There were some threads and aspects of the story that could have been more fleshed out or dropped altogether (like Maeve hooking up with a famous, unnamed director… how? Why? Does she do this often? Unclear why it was included). But I loved how twisted and terrible this story was, really no punches pulled. A great book for Halloween!

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