Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

18 reviews

trashynucleus's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cannibalism, Stalking, Abortion, and Alcohol

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

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

zoejfrank's review against another edition

dark funny 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? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

harshharmony's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.5

I can’t really tell how I feel about this book as it got extremely visceral in description and detail towards the end, and I was physically uncomfortable. The last book that made me want to stop reading due to what and how it described something was Almost Transparent Blue, soooo…

I don’t think I can ever recommend this book to someone, but I do wish I had someone to say “what the fuck?!” to regarding this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

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. 

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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

orizenda's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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 really liked this book except for the romance, which I didn’t realize would be such a large plot element. Like to me this felt like a love story with some other weird fucked up stuff happening around it and then some genuine emotions. I would have liked it a lot better if it had been about Maeve and Kate ijs i think a love story there would be a lot more potentially interesting. but like interesting plot elements, although sometimes i think it feels like there’s too much going on for such a short story. idk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Excrement

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

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

Really weird sex stuff. Like uncomfortably weird sex stuff.

gretaslittlelibrary's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

 4.25/5⭐️

“Men have always been permitted in fiction and in life to simply be what they are, no matter how dark or terrifying that might be. But with a woman, we expect an answer, a reason.”

The more I sit and think on this book, the more I enjoy it. Maeve cleaved her way into my brain and won’t leave. I crave more Maeve (someone please pick up the rights to a movie, it would crush as a movie) or CJ please give us a sequel, or a prequel about grandma??

This book was raunchy, gory, entertaining, and horrific. However, it was also so much more. The above quote really resignated with me and was a pretty major focus of the book. It was nice to see a FMC just be terrible. I saw some reviews that say she actually wasn’t and that her trauma from her grandma showing her what she did when she first got to LA. But I didn’t get that from the book, in fact Leede writes it so we know that Maeve was terrible before she got there, it’s part of what helped her bond with her grandma.  It was nice to just feel her rage, annoyance, confusion, and sense of loss. There’s also a ton of other things you can look into this book for such as psycho-sexual nature and misanthropes, but I don’t feel the need, or want, to dive farther into it right now. It was a fun and dark read and I just want to enjoy it and continue to think about it. Maybe I’ll reread and dive deeper into the themes at a later dated.

Relating to the raunchiness, goriness, and horrificness: I know a lot of people talk about the eggs, but for me it was the teeth. I don’t like teeth things to begin with so that almost threw me off this book, but I’m so glad I powered through. I do wish there was a little more of the gore and horror in the beginning of the book, prior to the pool table scene, but I get why (I think) the author didn’t do it it. It let us get to know Maeve and then let us witness Maeve’s world turn when Gideon entered the picture. 

A few other things I loved about it: the twist ending, the Halloween incorporation, and the descriptiveness of places around LA (as someone whose never been, I felt like I was there with Maeve). 

My biggest dislikes: The ending felt a little rushed and ended with no resolution. Teeth things! And the Johnny Depp/Bartender scenes, if anyone’s read this and can explain the reasoning for these other than it’s a place Maeve calls her own, please let me know! 

Please check trigger warnings before reading, some big ones I can think of is body horror, sexual assault, descriptions of violent murder and torture, mutilation, etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

iambigsmelly'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

3.5

This book is difficult. In a sense that it's messed up in every way. But this trope of body mutilation during sexual acts is tiresome. It's too easy. I was recommended this as body horror. It is not. It's scrapping the bottom of the barrel in terms of body horror. 

That being said it is a book that makes you want to keep going. Every "what the fuck" moment makes you want the next one. Just like our killer Maeve it taps into a primal obsession. 

It's odd, disgusting, but intriguing, possibly projecting? 

I give it 4.5-5 in terms of how it's written, fast paced, and in your face. Poetic but not too cliché that it's boring. But it takes a bit hit cause IMO I hate this trope in "body horror". It's 2 dimensional. Instead of putting things in places that don't belong, why not make places become something that don't belong?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment