Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

103 reviews

magicalrealem's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam was an interesting slow-burn. I listened to it, and I think I would’ve enjoyed it more had I physically read it. I like how close the story stays to the main characters, and I would’ve preferred it stay that close instead of pulling out with flash-forwards or hints about what was happening. I didn’t know much about the book outside of the jacket description, so I wasn’t sure at first whether what was going to happen would be on micro or macro scale. I will say there is a section of incredibly well-written and disturbing body horror that had me pausing the audio book. 

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magnoliabloomfield's review against another edition

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1.0

With prose more purple than Thanos’ ass, this book tells a two page short story in 72k words. Maybe I’m just not one of those intellectual types that can easily spot the satire and nuances of books that try to make a commentary on society, maybe I’m just a poor schlub trying to find entertainment to escape my life. But I did not find entertainment here. I didn’t find anything realistic or likable. I only found profound irritation and disgust.

I pretty much DNFed by page 42 even though I had wanted to since page 10 where the mother “could see her children already wiggled into their quick drying Lycra” otherwise known as swim suits “hurtling toward the placid blue. Archie, long limbs and acute angles, barely convex chest sprouting brown twists at the pink nipples; Rose, curvy and jiggling, downy with baby hair, her polka dot one piece straining just so at the legs, pudendum in relief.” Like ok thanks for thinking of your 17 year old sons nipples, and your even younger daughter’s genitals- yeah Google “pudendum” and be as grossed out as I am.

He lists about 55 specific items she bought at the grocery store in one paragraph that was 37 lines long, took up a whole page in all, and lord help me for counting: 418 words.

The sex and masturbation scenes were not what the kids today call spicy, it feels like you were a voyeur but you never consented to it. Highly uncomfortable.

I wish I’d never spent any time or money on this book.
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mangofandango's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Oof. A hard read, but so riveting that I stayed up late and finished it in just a few days over Christmas. It’s not good Christmas reading! It’s extremely compelling, but also a long stomach ache of anxiety. It’s exactly the kind of story about nuclear war/end of the world/major unprecedented global disaster story that isn’t usually told - what happens when you’re not at the epicenter, when you happen to be in the “right” place (sort of) to not know what has happened but to still know something terrible has happened - and our phones can’t tell us, our TVs can’t tell us, governors can declare states of emergency but can’t tell us about them. How do you cope, what do you do, who do you trust? How do race and class come into play and how can you face the person you are under those kinds of tests? That’s what this book is. Some of the writing made me uncomfortable because it is cringe inducing (like, there’s a lot of weird, cringy bits about genitals specifically?)…but I also really liked many aspects of the writing - the changing perspectives, the omniscient narrator asides, the way the magnitude of what happened (though we don’t know exactly what it is) is communicated through things like migration patterns and optimistic phone chargers… yeah. Clearly I’m in my feelings about this. It’s a lot, but it’s an experience.
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noblememoruled's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

overall enjoyable. i didn't like how the narration hopped from character to character: it destroyed all tension, which would have made the premise go over better. it doesn't feel like there's anything at stake for these characters.  the story is very constrained, but we also know everything there is about these characters: the danger is sparse and external, but we don't get to see them face it at all. i would've loved to discover more about the state of the worldl. 
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whitllo's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It’s a very interesting story concept and a unique take on the typical disaster story.
It was frustrating not to know anything about the disaster - though that is perhaps the point of the story.
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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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readwithbells's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Honestly, at the end of the day, I liked the concept but not the execution. It felt a little pretentious and pretty boring and by the time something truly horrifying happened to captivate my attention, the book was almost over. I was pretty excited for this book and wanted it to be better - it was written well and I think the author probably accomplished what they meant to but I just don’t think I liked it. 
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georgiesutton's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

I expected this to develop more than it did in terms of plot points, I feel like I’ve only read the first half of a book and I’m left wanting to read on about what is going on. It felt quite Station Eleven but for me lacked any real plot that could have been really interesting. Also
The teeth falling out was both horrifying and my favourite part because I have had many anxiety dreams about that happening and this captured it perfectly
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gtierk's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
a lot of sexualizing children, which I did not lovexx
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jnb2796's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
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